Arsuz

Arsuz (Arabic: أرسوز; Greek: Αρσούς) is a municipality and district of Hatay Province, Turkey.[2] Its area is 462 km2,[3] and its population is 101,233 (2022).[1] It covers the southwestern part of the agglomeration of İskenderun and the adjacent countryside and coast. In ancient times, it was known as Rhosus (Ancient Greek: Ῥῶσός and Ῥωσός[4]) and was a former bishopric and titular see.

Arsuz
District and municipality
Map showing Arsuz District in Hatay Province
Map showing Arsuz District in Hatay Province
Arsuz is located in Turkey
Arsuz
Arsuz
Location in Turkey
Coordinates: 36°24′46″N 35°53′12″E
CountryTurkey
ProvinceHatay
Government
 • MayorAsaf Güven (CHP)
Area
462 km2 (178 sq mi)
Elevation
25 m (82 ft)
Population
 (2022)[1]
101,233
 • Density220/km2 (570/sq mi)
Time zoneTRT (UTC+3)
Area code0326
Websitewww.arsuz.bel.tr

Geography

The town center of Arsuz is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) South of İskenderun and 118 kilometres (73 mi) from Antakya (administrative center of Hatay Province). While the town center is relatively small near the end of a coastal road leading south from İskenderun, the entire coastal region between İskenderun and the town center is often simply referred as Arsuz. This area is predominantly small rural farms (generally located inland towards the mountains) and small groups of summer homes (generally located near the coastline).

History

Arsuz had many names throughout history, including: Rhosus, Rhossos, Rhossus, Rhopolis, Port Panel/Bonnel, Kabev and Arsous. The earliest documents about it date from the Seleucid Empire, of whose Antioch became the capital. Malalas writes that the city was founded by Cilix, son of Agenor.[5][6] Harpalus erected a brazen statue of Glycera by the side of his own statue at Rhosus.[7][8] Demetrius I of Macedon moved the statue of the goddess Tyche from Antigonia to the Rhosos.[6]

Arsuz was then an important seaport on the Gulf of Issus. In 64 BC, it was annexed by the Roman Empire. Under the name Rhosus, it was a city and bishopric (see below) in the late Roman province of Cilicia Secunda, with Anazarba as its capital. It is mentioned by Strabo,[9] Ptolemy,[10] Pliny the Elder[11] and Stephanus Byzantius; and later by Hierocles[12] and George of Cyprus.[13][14]

Some Christians in Rhosus accepted as truth the Docetic Gospel of Peter and for them in around AD 200 Serapion of Antioch composed a treatise condemning the book.[15] Theodoret[16] 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 Orthodox Church on 5 and 9 February.[14]

In 638 the city was incorporated into the Rashidun Caliphate. In 969 it was taken by the Byzantine Empire, in 1084 by the Seljuk Turks, in 1039 by the Crusades, in 1296 by the Egyptian Mamluks and in 1517 by the Ottoman Turks.[17]

Between 1918 and 1938 the town was under French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon with the rest of Iskenderun district. In 1938, it became part of the independent Hatay Republic, but in June 1939 the Hatay legislature voted to join Turkey. The district Arsuz was created in 2013 from part of the district of İskenderun.[18][19]

Composition

There are 38 neighbourhoods in Arsuz District:[20]

  • Akçalı
  • Arpaçiftlik
  • Arpaderesi
  • Arpagedik
  • Aşağı Kepirce
  • Avcılarsuyu
  • Beyköyü
  • Çetillik
  • Derekuyu
  • Gökmeydan
  • Gözcüler
  • Gülcihan
  • Hacıahmetli
  • Harlısu
  • Haymaseki
  • Helvalı
  • Hüyük
  • Işıklı
  • Kale
  • Karaağaç Cumhuriyet
  • Karaağaç Konarlı
  • Karaağaç Övündük
  • Karaağaç Şarkkonak
  • Karagöz
  • Karahüseyinli
  • Kışla
  • Konacık
  • Kozaklı
  • Kurtbağı
  • Madenli
  • Nardüzü
  • Nergizlik
  • Pirinçlik
  • Tatarlı
  • Tülek
  • Üçgüllük
  • Uluçınar
  • Yukarıkepirce

Demographics

German traveler Martin Hartmann listed 31 settlements in the Ottoman nahiyah of Arsuz, 10 being Alawite (381 houses), 8 being Turkish (205 houses), and 12 without any information. The town of Arsuz (70 houses) was almost wholly Greek Christian with the exception of three Arab and one Turkish families.[21]

Ecclesiastical history

Rhosus was a diocese in the sway of the Patriarchate of Antioch, originally as a suffragan of its Metropolitan in provincial capital of Cilicia Secunda, the Archdiocese of Anazarba, as mentioned in the Notitiae Episcopatuum in the 6th century[22] and one dating from about 840.[23] In another of the 10th century Rhosus is included among the 'exempt' sees, directly subject to the Patriarch.[24]

Six residential Suffragan bishops of Rhosus are known:[25]

Titular see

No later than the 15th century the diocese was nominally restored as Latin titular bishopric of Rhosus (Latin) / Rosea (until 1925) / Roso (Curiate Italian) / Rhosien(sis) (Latin adjective)

It is vacant since decades, having had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank:[26]

References
  1. "Address-based population registration system (ADNKS) results dated 31 December 2022, Favorite Reports" (XLS). TÜİK. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  2. Büyükşehir İlçe Belediyesi, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  3. "İl ve İlçe Yüz ölçümleri". General Directorate of Mapping. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  4. Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, §R548.17
  5. Malalas, Chronography, Book 8.198
  6. Malalas, Chronography, Book 8.201
  7. Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, §13.50
  8. Athenaeus, Deipnosophists, § 13.68
  9. XIV, 5; XVI, 2.
  10. V, 14.
  11. V, xviii, 2.
  12. Synecdemus 705, 7.
  13. Descriptio orbis romani, 827.
  14. Pétridès, Sophron (1912). "Rhosus" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  15. Eusebius, "Histor. eccles.", VI, xii, 2.
  16. Philoth. Histor., X, XI.
  17. Town page (in Turkish) Archived October 8, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  18. "Law No. 6360". Official Gazette (in Turkish). 6 December 2012.
  19. "İl İdaresi ve Mülki Bölümler Şube Müdürlüğü İstatistikleri - İl ve İlçe Kuruluş Tarihleri" (PDF) (in Turkish). p. 39. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
  20. Mahalle, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  21. Hartmann, Martin (1894). Das liwa Haleb (Aleppo) und ein Teil des Liwa Dschebel Bereket. Berlin: W. Pormetter. p. 103-104. Retrieved 30 November 2022. in arsūz wohnen nur drei arabisch-muslimische und eine türkische Familie; alle übrigen sind Rūm.
  22. Vailhé in "Échos d'Orient", X, 145.
  23. Gustav Parthey, Hieroclis synecd. et notit. gr. episcopat., not. Ia, 827.
  24. Vailhé, ibid. 93 seq.
  25. Le Quien, Oriens christianus, II, 905.
  26. "Titular See of Rhosus, Turkey".
  27. Arnould, Alain (1988). "The Iconographical Sources of a Composite Manuscript from the Library of Raphael de Mercatellis". Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 51: 197–209. doi:10.2307/751276. JSTOR 751276. S2CID 195012366. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
Bibliography
  • Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig, 1931, p. 436
  • Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris, 1740, Tomo II, coll. 905-908
  • Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 1, p. 423 (note 4 on 'Rosensis'); vol. 2, pp. 224–225; vol. 3, p. 287; vol. 5, p. 334; vol. 6, p. 357
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