Ptolemais was an ancient port city on the Canaanite coast in the ancient region of Phoenicia, in the location of the present-day city of Acre, Israel. It was also called Ptolemais in Canaan and Ake-Ptolemais (orAkko, Ake, or AkreinCanaanite Language). It was an ancient bishopric that became a double Catholic titular see.
| UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
|---|---|
A coin of Ake (later Ptolemais), depicting Zeus and bearing the Phoenician legend 𐤏𐤊 (ʿK), from the coinage of Alexander the Great
| |
| Location | Israel |
| Reference | 1042 |
| Inscription | 2001 (25th Session) |
| Area | 63.3 ha (156 acres) |
| Buffer zone | 22.99 ha (56.8 acres) |
| Coordinates | 32°55′42″N 35°5′2″E / 32.92833°N 35.08389°E / 32.92833; 35.08389 |
  Location of Ptolemais in Phoenicia in Mediterranean  Ptolemais in Phoenicia (Israel) Show map of Israel | |
In the Middle Ages, it was known as Acre amongst some Crusaders, who established a militant Latin Christian order.
Greek historians refer to the city as Ake (Ἄκη), meaning "cure."[citation needed] According to the Greek myth, Heracles found curative herbs here to heal his wounds.[1] Josephus calls it Akre. The name was changed to Antiochia Ptolemais (Ἀντιόχεια Πτολεμαΐς) shortly after Alexander the Great's conquest, and then simply to Ptolemais, probably by Ptolemy I Soter, after the Wars of the Diadochi led to the partition of the kingdom of Alexander the Great and its inclusion first into the Egypt-based Lagid empire, then in the Seleucid Empire.
Around 37 BC, the Romans conquered the Hellenized Phoenician port city called Akko. It became a colony in southern Roman Phoenicia, called Colonia Claudia Felix Ptolemais Garmanica Stabilis.[2] Ptolemais stayed Roman for nearly seven centuries until the Muslim conquest in 636. Under Augustus, a gymnasium was built in the city. In 4 BC, the Roman proconsul Publius Quinctilius Varus assembled his army there to suppress the revolts that broke out in the region following the death of Herod the Great.
The Romans built a breakwater and expanded the harbor at the present location of the harbor... In the Roman/Byzantine period, Acre-Ptolemais was an important port city. It minted its own coins, and its harbor was one of the main gates to the land. Through this port the Roman Legions came by ship to crush the Jewish revolt in 67AD. It also served was used as connections to the other ports (for example, Caesarea and Jaffa)....The port of Acre (Ptolemais) was a station on Paul's naval travel, as described in Acts of the Gospels (21, 6-7): "And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again. And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day".[3]
During the rule of the emperor Claudius there was a building drive in Ptolemais and veterans of the legions settled here. The city was one of four colonies (with Berytus, Aelia Capitolina, and Caesarea Maritima) created in the Levant by Roman emperors for veterans of their Roman legions.[4] As a result, Claudius granted it the title Colonia Claudia Felix Ptolemais Garmanica Stabilis.
The city was a center of Romanization in the region, but most of the population was made of local Phoenicians and Jews: as a consequence, after Hadrian's rule, the descendants of the initial Roman colonists ceased speaking Latin and were fully assimilated within less than two centuries. However, local customs remained Roman.
In 66, Gessius Florus, the Procurator of Judea, conducted an initial massacre of the Jews living in the city. The next year, the Roman military commander Vespasian, accompanied by his son Titus, moved from Ptolemais to suppress a Jewish uprising in the Galilee campaign.
In 130, the port of Ptolemais was used as a base for the Roman Legions setting forth to suppress the Bar-Kochba revolt. After the destruction of Jerusalem many Jews settled in Ptolemais, that was losing its original Phoenician characteristics since Augustus times.
In 190, Christianity started to be important in the city: Clarus, the Bishop of Ptolemais, participated in a council of Christian leaders. Ptolemais grew to be an important port in the eastern Mediterranean Sea of the Roman Empire. After Hadrianic times, Ptolemais was the commercial center & port of Jewish Galilee and was starting no longer part of Phoenicia.
In 351, Constantius Gallus suppressed a Jewish rebellion and massacred the Jews of Akko-Ptolemais, who were starting to be the majority of the city's population and rejected Roman domination.
Under Byzantine control, the city lost importance, and around 636 was conquered by Amr ibn al-As. Following the defeat of the Byzantine armyofHeraclius by the Rashidun armyofKhalid ibn al-Walid in the Battle of the Yarmuk and the capitulation of the Christian city of Jerusalem to Umar, Ptolemais was ruled by the Rashidun Caliphate beginning in 638.
Ptolemais was an important center of early Christianity in the region. Saint Paul visited the city at the end of his third missionary journey.
Towards the end of the third century, Ptolemais was a predominantly Christian city, but with a large Jewish community. An unidentified visitor from Italy reported that in the sixth century, the city had beautiful churches. Indeed, an important discovery was made in 2011: a Byzantine church in the middle of San Giovanni d'Acri, as it was called in the Middle Ages.[5]
The Apostle Paul, returning from his trip to Macedonia and Achea, landed at Tyre, and from there sailed to Ptolemais, where he stayed some days with the local Christian community (Acts 21.7).
Ptolemais became of suffragan of the Metropolitan Archbishopric of Tyre.
The first bishop known is Clarus, who in 190 AD attended a Council meeting which saw some bishops of Phoenicia and Palestine to deal with the issue of the date of the Easter feast. But we must go back to the fourth century to find the next Bishop, Enea, who took part at the first Council of Nicaea in 325 AD and at the Synod held in Antioch in 341 AD. Nectabus was one of the fathers of the first Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381 AD. Between the 4th and 5th centuries lived Bishop Antiochus, opponent of John Chrysostom. Helladius participated in the first Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. Paul took part in the Council held at Antioch of 445 AD to judge the work of Athanasius of Perrhe and at the Council of Chalcedon of 451 AD. In 518 AD Bishop John signed a Synodal letter against Severus of Antioch and the Monophysite party. Finally, the last known Bishop of Ptolemais is George, who attended the second Council of Constantinople in 553 AD.
It faded after Islam was established in Greater Syria in the 7th century by the first Caliphs, conquering the Sassanid satrapy.
In the 12th century, the Crusaders started all over in their Kingdom of Jerusalem. From 1107 - 1190 AD including a Latin Catholic Diocese of Acre. Then reconquered in the 13th century for another further decades of Christian domination with Jewish communities peacefully living together.
Long after the Crusader states had perished, the Catholic church nominally restored the see (linked to the Acre succession) as a titular see, actually twice, in different rite-specific branches.
It is vacant since decades, having had the following incumbents, so far of the (mostly fitting) Episcopal, i.e. lowest) rank (with an archiepiscopal exception) :
(Eastern Catholic, Antiochian Rite)
It has had the following incumbents, of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank with an archiepiscopal exception: