'''Photice''' or '''Photike''' ({{langx|grc|Φωτική}}) was a city in Epirus in the Roman and Byzantine periods. In the late Middle Ages it was known as '''Hagios Donatos''' (Ἅγιος Δονᾶτος).<ref name="TIB">{{Tabula Imperii Byzantini | volume = 3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6fx-QgAACAAJ|language=German|pages=236–237}}</ref>
==History== The city was likely settled since Classical Antiquity, but is only known in later times.<ref name="TIB"/> It appears in the 6th-century ''Synecdemus'', and according to Procopius of Caesarea, it was restored by Justinian I ({{reign|527|565}}). Procopius says that it originally stood in a marshy situation, and that Justinian built a citadel upon a neighbouring height.<ref>Procop. 4.1; {{Cite Hierocles|p. 652}}</ref> That citadel was likely named after Saint Donatus; in the lists of Justinian's buildings provided by Procopius, there are two forts of that name in the province of Epirus Vetus.<ref name="TIB"/>
The city is attested as a bishopric, a suffragan see of the Metropolis of Naupaktos, since the Council of Chalcedon in 451.<ref name="TIB"/> Only a few of its bishops are known: John (at the Council of Chalcedon), Diadochus (signatory of a letter on the murder of Proterius of Alexandria to Emperor Leo I the Thracian), Hilarius (signatory of a letter to Pope Hormisdas), Manuel (at the time of Germanus II of Constantinople), Antony (in 1564), and Nicholas ({{circa|1720}}).<ref>{{Oriens christianus | volume = 2 | at = coll. 143-144 }}</ref> From the 10th century, the see was moved to nearby Bela, probably for a short time at first; by the 13th century, the bishopric resided permanently at Bela.<ref name="TIB"/> By that time, Photice itself was known as Hagios Donatos; the ''chastel de Saint Donnat'' was promised as his wife's dowry to Philip of Taranto by Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, Despot of Epirus.<ref name="TIB"/>
In the revolt of Epirus in 1338/39 against the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos ({{reign|1328|1341}}), Hagios Donatos remained loyal to the emperor.<ref name="TIB"/> In 1367 or 1368 the town, under its ruler Bardas, abandoned the allegiance to the Serbian ruler of Epirus, Thomas Preljubović, but in 1380 Thomas purchased its possession.<ref name="TIB"/> In 1411 the town submitted to Carlo I Tocco, who later appointed his second son, Torno, as its governor.<ref name="TIB"/> Paramythia, which eventually succeeded the settlement, is attested at about the same time. The Ottomans knew the town as "Aidonat Kalesi".<ref name="TIB"/>
==Location and remains== Its site is located near the modern area of Limponi,<ref>{{Barrington Atlas|page=54}}</ref><ref>{{Cite DARE|31629}}</ref> some 2 km northwest of Paramythia.<ref name="TIB"/> Remains of the fortifications on a rocky plateau, stretching in an east–west direction with sheer cliffs to the west, include walls up to 5 m high, remains of a gate with tower, and of a square keep.<ref name="TIB"/> The wider area features a number of Byzantine monuments:
At the site of Balsamari, remains of a three-aisled Byzantine basilica, probably dating to the 11th century, dedicated to Saint Photeine. Its dimensions are 13.7 m × 12.3 m, and its walls survived in places up to 2.5 m in height.<ref name="TIB"/> West of Balsamari, at Palioklisi, remains of an early Christian basilica on a hilltop. Probably three-aisled, some 20 m × 14 m large, with walls up to 2 m high, in the apse up to 4.5 m.<ref name="TIB"/> West of Plioklisi is the Panagia Lampobithra (or Lampovitsa), a ruined small, one-aisled church, some 7 m × 5 m large.<ref name="TIB"/>
In Paramythia itself lies the Church of the Dormition or Great Church (Μεγάλη Εκκλησία), a late Byzantine three-aisled basilica.<ref name="TIB"/> Some 100 m to the north are remains of a Byzantine bath-house.<ref name="TIB"/> Some 3 km south of Paramythia, near the village of Chrysavgi, remains of a three-aisled basilica (6th/7th century).<ref name="TIB"/>
==Catholic titular see== A titular see of Photice ({{langx|it|Fotice}}) was established by the Roman Catholic Church in 1933.<ref name="GCatholic">{{cite web | url = https://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t0813.htm | title = Titular Episcopal See of Photice | publisher = GCatholic.org | accessdate = 21 December 2018}}</ref> It has had two incumbents, and has been vacant since 1978:<ref name="GCatholic"/> * Joaquim de Lange, C.S.Sp. (1952.04.18 – 1978.05.26) * Joseph-Wilfrid Guy, O.M.I. (1929.12.19 – 1937.06.02, 1942.11.07 – 1951.12.08)
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:Populated places in ancient Epirus Category:Former populated places in Greece Category:Cities in ancient Epirus Category:Defunct dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Category:Populated places of the Byzantine Empire Category:Medieval Epirus Category:Byzantine sites in Epirus (region) Category:Catholic titular sees in Europe