And so we have gone over all the provinces of the East under the civil government of the Præfectus-Prætorio Orientis, except the six provinces of the Thracian diocese; which, because they are European provinces, we will consider as such among the provinces of Europe, and give them the first place in the following chapter.

CHAP. IV.

A continuation of the former account in the European

provinces.

provinces

1. In pursuance of the former inquiry, we are led out of Of the six Asia Minor into the provinces of Europe, where the six pro- of Thrace. vinces of the Thracian diocese, Europa, Thracia, Hæmimontis, And first, Rhodope, Mosia Secunda, and Scythia, first offer themselves of Scythia. to consideration. This was all the country from Macedonia and the river Strymon to the Danube, which is now Romania and Bulgaria. A country extending from Constantinople to Sardica, above three hundred miles one way, and from the Egean Sea to the Danube, almost as much the other. In all these provinces the dioceses were very large. For in Scythia, the most northern province, there was but one bishopric, though there were many cities. For the bishop of Tomi was the sole bishop of this whole region, as is noted by Sozomen 90 and Theodoret 91, and other ancient writers, by whom he is sometimes called the bishop of Tomi,' and sometimes the bishop of Scythia,' as being the only superintendent of all the churches in that Scythia which was made a province of the Roman empire.

91

6

2. The province of Europa had also large dioceses; for Of Europa. several cities were under one bishop. We find in the Acts of the Council of Ephesus 92 a petition offered to that Council by

90 L. 6. c. 21. (v. 2. p. 244. II.) Μητρόπολις δέ ἐστι Τόμις, πόλις μετ γάλη καὶ εὐδαίμων, παράλιος, ἐξ εὐω· νύμων εἰσπλέοντι τὸν Εὔξεινον και λούμενον Πόντον. Εἰσέτι δὲ καὶ νῦν ἔθος παλαιὸν ἐνθάδε κρατεῖ, τοῦ παντὸς ἔθνους ἕνα τὰς ἐκκλησίας ἐπισκοTeiv.-L. 7. c. 19. (ibid. p. 307. 5.) ̓Αμέλει Σκύθαι, πολλαὶ πόλεις ὄντες,

ἕνα πάντες ἐπίσκοπον ἔχουσιν.

91 L. 4. c. 35. (vol. 3. p. 190. 4.) Καὶ Βρετανίων παντοδαπῇ μὲν λαμπρυνόμενος ἀρετῇ, πάσης δὲ τῆς Σκυθίας τὰς πόλεις ἀρχιερατικῶς ἰθύειν πεπιστευμένος, κ. τ. λ.

92 Part. 2. Act. 7. (t. 3. p. 810 b. Vetus mos viget, &c.

the bishops of this province, wherein they pray, that an immemorial custom of their country might be continued, whereby the bishop of Heraclea had also Panium in his diocese, the bishop of Bizya had Arcadiopolis, the bishop of Cole had Callipolis, the bishop of Subsadia had Aphrodisias:' to which petition the Council agreed, and ordered that no innovation should be made in the matter.' Nor was there any alteration in the time of the Council of Chalcedon; for there 93 we find one Lucian styled 'bishop of Bizya and Arcadiopolis' still. But in the Council of Constantinople under Mennas 94 we meet with some alteration; for there Panium has a distinct bishop from Heraclea, and Callipolis from Cole. And in the Notitia of Leo Sapiens in Leunclavius, Bizya and Arcadiopolis are not only distinct bishoprics, but both of them advanced to the honour of autocephali, or titular metropolitans in the Church. In this province stood also Byzantium, once subject to Heraclea, the metropolis, till it was rebuilt and advanced to be the royal city by Constantine, after which it grew so great and populous as to equal old Rome. Sozomen 95 says Constantine adorned it with many noble oratories; and it appears from one of Justinian's Novels 96 that in his time four of these churches had no less than five hundred clergy of all sorts belonging to them. The Novatians themselves, as Socrates 97 observes, had three churches within the city: and in the suburbs, or region belonging to the city, the Catholics had many parishes and churches at a considerable distance, as Hebdomum, Sycæ, Marianæ, Hieron, Elæa, Therapea, and Hestiæ, otherwise called Michaëlium, which, Sozomen 98 says, was thirty-five furlongs from the city by water, and seventy by land.

93 Act. 16. (t. 4. p. 799 b.) Λουκιανὸς ἐπίσκοπος Βύζης και Αρκαδιουπόλεως ὁρίσας ὑπέγραψα.

94 Act. 3. et Act. 4. (t. 5. p. 59 e. et p. 73 a.)

95 L. 2. c. 3. (v. 2. p. 48. 12.) Ταύτην μὴν οὖν, ὡσεί τινα νεοπαγῇ Χριστοῦ πόλιν καὶ ὁμώνυμον ἑαυτῷ, γεραίρων Κωνσταντῖνος, πολλοῖς καὶ μεγίστοις ἐκόσμησεν εὐκτηρίοις.

98 Novel. 3. c. I. (t. 5. p. 33.) Εἶναι τὸν πάντα ἀριθμὸν τῶν εὐλαβεστάτων κληρικῶν τῆς μεγάλης έκκλησίας ἐν τετρακοσίοις εἰκοσιπέντε

προσώποις· καὶ ἑκατὸν πρὸς τούτοις τῶν καλουμένων πυλωρών. . . . Ita ut sit omnis numerus reverendissimorum clericorum sanctissimæ majoris ecclesiæ in quadringentis viginti quinque.

97 L. 2. c. 38. (v. 2. p. 147. 17.) Εἰς δὲ τὰς ἄλλας τρεῖς, τοσαύτας γὰρ ἐντὸς τῆς πόλεως ἔχουσιν οἱ τῶν Ναυατιανῶν ἐκκλησίας, συνερχόμενοι άλλήλοις συνηύχοντο.

98 L. 2. c. 3. (ibid. p. 48. 21.) .... Ἐν ταῖς Εστίαις . . . . τόπος δέ οὗτος, ὁ νῦν Μιχαήλιον ὀνομαζόμενος

I think it needless to be more particular in the description of this diocese, since these are sufficient indications of the largeness of it. I shall only add concerning this province of Europa, that though Carolus à Sancto Paulo reckons thirteen dioceses in it. 1. Heraclea. 2. Panium. 3. Cœlos. 4. Callipolis. 5. Cyla. 6. Aphrodisias. 7. Theodosiopolis. 8. Chersonesus. 9. Drusipara. 10. Lysimachia. 11. Bizya. 12. Selymbria. 13. Arcadiopolis;-yet really there were but nine for Cœlos and Cyla, as Holstenius 99 has observed, were two names for the same city, and Callipolis was joined in the same diocese with it; in like manner as Panium was annexed to Heraclea, and Arcadiopolis to Bizya: so that these were anciently dioceses of great extent.

3. In the province of Thracia, properly so called, there were of Thracia. but four dioceses. 1. Philippopolis. 2. Diocletianopolis. 3.

4. Diospolis.

Nicopolis. 4. Diospolis. And the modern Notitiæ, that of Leunclavius only excepted, have but three; for Nicopolis is not mentioned in them.

montis.

4. In the province of Hæmimontis there were anciently six Of Hæmidioceses. 1. Adrianopolis. 2. Mesembria. 3. Sozopolis. 4. Plutinopolis. 5. Develtus. 6. Anchialus. The latter Notitia reckon but the four first, and Zoïda instead of the two last, which are omitted, as being sunk or united into one.

5. In the province of Rhodope, Carolus à Sancto Paulo finds Of Rhodope. six dioceses. 1. Trajanopolis. 2. Maximianopolis. 3. Abdera. 4. Maronia. 5. Ænus. 6. Cypsela. To which Holstenius adds Topirus, which the other by mistake places in Macedonia: but these were so far from increasing in later ages, that they sunk into three, Trajanopolis, Anastasiopolis, and Perus, which are all that the modern Notitiæ mention.

Secunda.

6. In Mœsia Inferior, or Secunda, the last of the six Thra- Of Moesia cian provinces, which is now much the same with Bulgaria, Carolus à Sancto Paulo reckons nine dioceses. 1. Marcianopolis. 2. Nicopolis. 3. Novæ. 4. Abritum. 5. Durostorum. 6. Dionysiopolis. 7. Odessus. 8. Apiaria. 9. Comæa.

....διεστὼς αὐτῆς, πλωτῆρι μὲν ἀμφὶ τριάκοντα καὶ πέντε στάδια, ἑβδομήκοντα δὲ καὶ πρὸς κύκλῳ περιοδεύοντι τὸν διὰ μέσου πορθμόν.

To

99 Annot. in Car. a S. Paul. p. 131. (ap. Oper. Car. a S. Paul. p. 223. n. 4.) Cyla. Hæc est Cola, quam modo recensuimus.