36°22′12″N 30°16′21″E / 36.3699°N 30.2724°E / 36.3699; 30.2724 Corydala or Corydalla or Korydalla or Korydala (Ancient Greek: Κορύδαλλα) was a city of ancient Lycia. Anciently, it belonged to the Rhodians, according to Hecataeus, quoted by Stephanus.[1] But it was not in Rhodes, nor was it one of the Rhodian possessions in the Peraea, Caria.[2] The Tabula Peutingeriana marks Corydala (spelt Coridallo) on the road from Phaselis to Patara, and makes the distance between these two places 29 Roman miles (43 km; 27 mi) Pliny places Corydalla in the interior of Lycia,[3] and Ptolemy mentions it with Sagalassus, Rhodia, Phellus, Myra, and other places, as about Mons Massicytus.

There are coins of Corydala of the imperial period, with the epigraph Κορυδαλλεων.

Bishopric

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At an early stage, Corydala became the seat of a Christian bishop, a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Myra, the capital of the Roman province of Lycia. In a letter to Amphilochius of Iconium, Saint Basil the Great mentions Bishop Alexander of Corydala as a champion of orthodoxy. Bishop Solon took part in the Council of Ephesus in 431. Palladius was a signatory of the letter that the bishops of Lycia sent in 458 to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian with regard to the murder of Proterius of Alexandria. Leo or Leontius was the name of a bishop of the see who was at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. Le Quien, but not Janin, mention also a Eustrathius as a participant in the Photian Council of Constantinople (879).[4][5][6]

No longer a residential bishopric, Corydala is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[7] Harold William Henry was one of the titular bishops of the see.

Remains

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The present site is a village called Hacıveliler near Kumluca, on the east side of a small stream, about 16 miles (26 km), direct distance, south-west of Phaselis.[8] There was discovered, in an old wall, a squared block, with its inscribed face turned towards the stones, on which, in beautifully preserved letters, was the name of the city—Corydalla. There are at Corydala the remains of a small theatre, of a Roman aqueduct, and a massive Hellenic wall. The inscription copied from Corydala[9] is of the time of M. Aurelius Antoninus; and it shows that Corydala had the usual Greek constitution, a senate and a popular body. Pliny mentions Gagae, Corydala, and Rhodiopolis, in this order; and Rhodiopolis was found by Spratt and Forbes near Corydala.

References

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  1. ^ Steph. B. s. v. Κορύδαλλα.
  2. ^ Plin. v. 25; Ptol. v. 3.
  3. ^ Plin. v. 25.
  4. ^ Le Quien, Michel (1740). Oriens Christianus, in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus: quo exhibentur ecclesiæ, patriarchæ, cæterique præsules totius Orientis. Tomus primus: tres magnas complectens diœceses Ponti, Asiæ & Thraciæ, Patriarchatui Constantinopolitano subjectas (in Latin). Paris: Ex Typographia Regia. cols. 979–980. OCLC 955922585.
  5. ^ Raymond Janin, v. Corydalla, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XIII, Paris 1956, col. 926
  6. ^ Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 450
  7. ^ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 874
  8. ^ Spratt and Forbes, Lycia, vol. i. p. 164.
  9. ^ Spratt and Forbes, Lycia, vol. ii. p. 277.

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSmith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Corydalla". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.