Zygris

Zygris
Zygris

Location in Egypt

Coordinates: 31°12′N 27°55′E / 31.200°N 27.917°E / 31.200; 27.917
Country Egypt
Founded 1933
Elevation 2 m (7 ft)
Time zone EST (UTC+2)

Zygris (Greek: Ζυγρίς; the inhabitants were called Zygritae, Ζυγρῖται) was a small town in the Roman province of Marmarica, a province also known as Libya Inferior. It was in the eastern part of this region, which some geographers considered a separate area, called Libycus Nomus, distinct from both Marmarica and Aegyptus.[1] It may have been located at Zaviet-El-Chammas in modern Egypt.[2] Diderot's Encyclopedia gave Solonet as its modern name.[3]

Ptolemy describes it as only a village.[4]

An ancient guide for sailing, the Stadiasmus Maris Magni, says that there was at Zygris an islet at which it was possible to put in and find water on the shore.[5]

Bishopric

Map of      Cyrenaica and      Marmarica in the Roman era Showing Zygris. (Samuel Butler, 1907)

Although Zygris was only a village, it had its own bishop[6] from an early date.[7][8]

The bishopric was a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Darnis, the capital of the Roman province.[2] However, the extra-provincial authority exercised by the bishop of Alexandria over not only Egypt but also Libya (as was recognized at the First Council of Nicaea), meant that Zygris was also directly subject to the see of Alexandria.[9]

Marcus, bishop of Zygris, attended a synod convoked by Athanasius of Alexandria in 362 under Julian the Apostate. Lucius took part in the Robber Council of Ephesus in 349, a record of which was read at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.[10][11][12]

No longer a residential bishopric, Zygris is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[2]

References

  1. William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854): "Zygris"
  2. 1 2 3 Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 1013
  3. Encyclopédie de Diderot et d'Alembert, "Zygris"
  4. Book 4, chapter 5
  5. James Beresford, The Ancient Sailing Season (BRILL 2012 ISBN 978-90-0422352-3), p. 193
  6. Thomas Forrester, Causa Episcopatus Hierarchici Lucifuga: Or, A Confutation of J.S's Vindication of the (pretended) Principles of the Cyprianic Age. (heirs and successors of Andrew Anderson, 1706) page 91
  7. Thomas C. Oden, Early Libyan Christianity: Uncovering a North African Tradition, (InterVarsity Press, 2011). page 228.
  8. Joseph Bingham. Origines ecclesiasticæ; or, The antiquities of the Christian church, and other works, of the Rev. Joseph Bingham Chap. II:51.
  9. Charles Rollin 1760-65, Dictionnaire universel, dogmatique, canonique, historique, géographique et chronologique des sciences ecclésiastiques (Charles Louis et Giraud Richard, 1762) page 675.
  10. Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. II, coll. 635-636
  11. Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 462
  12. Acts of the Council of Chalcedon.
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