For the moth genus, see Rhosus (moth).

Rhosus is the name of several ancient sites and/or present Roman Catholic titular sees in what is now Turkey.

Cilician Rhos(s)us

A titular bishopric in the former Roman province of Cilicia Secunda, suffragan to Anazarba. Rhosus or Rhossus was a seaport situated on the Gulf of Issus, later Alexandretta, southwest of Alexandria (modern Iskenderoun or Alexandretta). It is mentioned by Strabo (XIV, 5; XVI, 2), Ptolemy (V, 14), Pliny (V, xviii, 2) who (mis?)places it in Syria and Stephanus Byzantius; later by Hierocles (Synecdemus 705, 7), and George of Cyprus (Descriptio orbis romani, 827), who locate it in Cilicia Secunda.

Towards 200 AD, Serapion of Antioch composed a treatise on the Gospel of Peter for the faithful of Rhosus who had become heterodox on account of that book (Eusebius, "Histor. eccles.", VI, xii, 2). Theodoret (Philoth. Histor., X, XI), who places it in Cilicia, relates the history of the hermit Theodosius of Antioch, founder of a monastery in the mountain near Rhosus, who was forced by the inroads of barbarians to retire to Antioch, where he died and was succeeded by his disciple Romanus, a native of Rhosus; these two religious are honoured by the Greek Church on 5 and 9 February.

Six bishops of Rhosus are known (Le Quien, Oriens christianus, II, 905):

• Antipatros, at the Council of Antioch, 363
• Porphyrius, a correspondent of St. John Chrysostom
• Julian, at the Council of Chalcedon, 451
• a little later a bishop (name unknown), who separated from his metropolitan to approve of the reconciliation effected between John of Antioch and St. Cyril
• Antoninus, at the Council of Mopsuestia, 550; Theodore, about 600.

The see is mentioned among the suffragans of Anazarba in Notitiæ episcopatuum of the Patriarchate of Antioch, of the sixth century (Vailhé in "Echos d'Orient", X, 145) and one dating from about 840 (Gustav Parthey, Hieroclis synecd. et notit. gr. episcopat., not. Ia, 827). In another of the tenth century Rhosus is included among the exempt sees (Vailhé, ibid. 93 seq.).

In the twelfth century the town and neighbouring fortress fell into the hands of the Armenians. In 1268 this castle was captured from the Templars by Sultan Bibars (Alishan, "Sissouan", Venice, 1899, 515). Rhosus is near the village of Arsous in the former Ottoman vilayet of Adana.

Rosea

The official catalogue of the Roman Curia mentioned formerly a titular see of Rosea in the former Roman province of Syria. The title was borne in the early 20th century by Mgr Félix Jourdan de la Passardière, of the Oratory of France, who lived in Paris. The name Rosea being only a corruption of Rhosus, it was replaced by the latter in 1884.

Other

• a place on the Pierian coast in Macedonia, site of the wedding of Seleucus I Nicator, king of Syria, and Stratonice, daughter of king Demetrius I Poliorcetes.

Sources and references

• This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. [1] & [2]

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