THE ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION IN ARMENIA INTERIOR IN THE 5th CENTURY AD
THE ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION IN ARMENIA INTERIOR IN THE 5th CENTURY AD

Summary/Abstract: This article is devoted to the status of the sees of Theodosiopolis and Acilisene/Leontopolis in Inner Armenia (Armenia Interior) in the 5th century AD. The scholarly opinion is that these sees used to be subordinated to Caesarea in Cappadocia Prima. The see of Theodosiopolis is attested as a suffragan of Caesarea in Notitiae episcopatuum, while that of Leontopolis is attested in the attendance lists and the signature list of the second Council of Constantinople (553). However, this is certainly a situation posterior to the middle of the 5th century. In fact, in the letter that the metropolitan Alypius of Caesarea dispatched to the Emperor Leon I in 457/8, the former clearly asserted that he had only two suffragans under his jurisdiction, namely the bishops of Nyssa and Therma. Therefore, the sees of Theodosiopolis and Acilisene, the future Leontopolis, did not use to be subordinated to the metropolitan see of Caesarea at that time. There is not any absolute evidence on the status of these two sees before 553. However, it is possible that they were ecclesiastically subordinated to Sebasteia in Armenia Prima during the 5th century. This hypothesis might draw support from the title that Peter of Theodosiopolis used in his signature on the documents of the process held in Constantinople in 449 (13 April), namely ἐπισκόπου τῆς Θεοδοσιουπολιτῶν πόλεως ἐπαρχίας Ἀρμενίας / episcopus Theodosiupolis ciuitatis prouinciae Armeniae. With respect to the moment when Theodosiopolis and Leontopolis were transferred under the jurisdiction of Caesarea, it is possible that this event occured in the first part of Justinian I᾽s reign – between 527 and 536. This Emperor rebuilt the city of Leontopolis, thereafter called Justinianopolis, and it is not improbable that in that context he also transferred both its see and the one of Theodosiopolis to the ecclesiastical province of Cappadocia Prima.

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