Orthosias in Phoenicia or Orthosia (Ancient Greek: Ὀρθωσία)[3] was a Phoenician town near Nahr el Bared river.[4] Administratively, it was located in the Roman province of Phoenicia Prima[clarification needed], and was a bishopric that was a suffragan of Tyre.

A coin of Orthosia, depicting the temple of Astarte and Astarte herself standing, with a river god of Nahr el bared under her foot[1]
A coin of Orthosia[2]

History and geography

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The city is mentioned for the first time in 1 Maccabees, 15:37, as a Phœnician port;[5][6] Pliny[7] places it between Tripoli, on the south, and the River Eleutherus, on the north; Strabo,[8] near the Eleutherus; Peutinger's Table, agreeing with Hierocles, George of Cyprus, and others, indicates it between Tripoli and Antaradus.

The discovery on the banks of the Eleutherus of Orthosian coins, dating from Antoninus Pius and bearing figures of Astarte, led to the identification of the site of Orthosias near the Nahr al-Bared river at a spot marked by ruins, called Bordj Hakmon el-Yehoudi.

Bishops

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Le Quien[9] mentions four bishops, beginning with Phosphorus in the fifth century. Two Latin titulars of the fourteenth century appear in Eubel.[10] In the Notitiae Episcopatuum of Antioch for the 6th century[11] Orthosias is a suffragan of Tyre, while in that of the 10th century (op. cit., X, 97) it is confused with Antaradus or Tortosa.

Notes

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  1. ^ Hill, George Francis (1965). Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Phoenicia. Arnaldo Forni - Editore. pp. lxxvi, 127.
  2. ^ For the type of this coin, see Hill, George Francis (1965). Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Phoenicia. Arnaldo Forni - Editore. p. 126.
  3. ^ Strabo, Geography, 14.5.3
  4. ^ Hill, George Francis (1965). Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Phoenicia. Arnaldo Forni - Editore. pp. lxxvi.
  5. ^ D. V., Orthosias.
  6. ^ Septuagint, 1 Maccabees, 37
  7. ^ Hist. Nat., V, xvii.
  8. ^ Geographia, XVI, ii, 12, 15.
  9. ^ Oriens Christianus, II, 825.
  10. ^ "Hierarchia cath. medii ævi", I, 396.
  11. ^ "Échos d'Orient", X, 145.

References

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Attribution
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