{{Short description|Ancient city in Syria Secunda}} {{Distinguish|Raphana}} {{Infobox ancient site
|name = Raphanea |native_name = الرفنية |alternate_name = |image = Ifpo 21511 Syrie, gouvernorat de Hama, district de Masyaf, région de Raphanée, vue aérienne oblique.jpg |alt = |caption = 1936 aerial view of Raphanea |map_type = Syria |map_alt = |map_size = 250 |location = Syria |region = Hama Governorate |coordinates = {{coord|34|56|03|N|36|23|48|E|type:city_region:SY_source:kolossus-frwiki|display=inline,title}} |type = |part_of = |length = |width = |area = |height = |builder = |material = |built = |abandoned = |epochs = |cultures = |dependency_of = |occupants = |event = |excavations = |archaeologists = |condition = |ownership = |management = |public_access = |website = |notes = }}
'''Raphanea''' or '''Raphaneae''' ({{langx|grc|Ῥαφάνεια}};<ref>{{cite web|author=Emil Schürer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7k3BAAAQBAJ&q=%E1%BF%AC%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AC%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%B9%CE%B1&pg=PT647|title=A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ: Two Divisions in Five Volumes|publisher=Aeterna Press|year=2014|isbn=}}</ref> {{langx|ar|الرفنية|al-Rafaniyya}}; colloquial: ''Rafniye'') was a city of the late Roman province of Syria Secunda. Its bishopric was a suffragan of Apamea.
== History ==
Josephus mentions Raphanea in connection with a river Σαββατικον, referred now to as Sambation that flowed only every seventh days (probably an intermittent spring now called Fuwar ed-Deir) and that was viewed by Titus on his way northward from Berytus after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/war-7.htm Josephus, ''The War of the Jews or The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem'', book 7, chapter 5, 1]</ref>
Near Emesa, Raphanea was the fortified headquarters of the Legio III Gallica from which was launched the successful bid of 14-year-old Elagabalus to become Roman Emperor in 218.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=hL99AgAAQBAJ&dq=Raphanea&pg=PA209 Jasper Burns, ''Great Women of Imperial Rome'' (Routledge 2006] {{ISBN|978-1-13413185-3}}), p. 209</ref>
Raphanea issued coins under Elagabalus,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YJPn3-rRjC0C&dq=Rafniyeh&pg=PA117 Kevin Butcher, ''Roman Syria and the Near East'' (Getty Publications 2003] {{ISBN|978-0-89236715-3}}), p. 117</ref> and many of its coins are extant.<ref>[http://numismatics.org/search/results?q=department_facet:%22Greek%22%20AND%20mint_facet:%22Raphanea%22 American Numismatic Society: Raphanea]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cerberuscoins.com/Elagabalus-AE21mm-of-Raphanea-in-Syria.html |title=Elagabalus AE21mm Raphanea in Syria |access-date=2014-02-20 |archive-date=2023-01-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230128062214/https://www.cerberuscoins.com/elagabalus-ae21mm-of-raphanea-in-syria.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=42046.0;wap2 Raphanea Genius Coin]</ref>
Hierocles<ref>''Synecdemus'', 712, 8.</ref> and Georgius Cyprius<ref>870 (Heinrich Gelzer, ''Georgii Cyprii descriptio orbis romani'', 44)</ref> mention Raphanea among the towns of Syria Secunda. The crusaders passed through it at the end of 1099; it was taken by Baldwin I and was given to the Count of Tripoli.<ref>"Historiens des croisades", passim; Rey in "Bulletin de la Société des antiquaires de France", Paris, 1885, 266.</ref> It was then known as Rafania.<ref name=CE>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13018c.htm Sophrone Pétridès, "Rhaphanaea" in ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' (New York 1912)]</ref>
== Episcopal see ==
The only bishops of Raphanea known are:<ref name=CE/><ref>Le Quien, "Oriens christianus", II, 921.</ref> *Bassianus, present at the Nicaea, 325; *Gerontius at Philippopolis, 344; *Basil at Constantinople, 381; *Lampadius at Chalcedon, 451; *Zoilus about 518; *Nonnus, 536.
The see is mentioned as late as the 10th century in the ''Notitia episcopatuum'' of Antioch.<ref name=CE/><ref>Vailhé, "Échos d'Orient", X, 94.</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == *{{cite web |url=http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/668350 |title=Places: 668350 (Raphaneai) |author=Brown, J., P. Gatier, R. Warner, R. Talbert, T. Elliott, S. Gillies |accessdate=March 8, 2012<!-- 12:10 pm -->|publisher=Pleiades}} *[http://www.tabula-peutingeriana.de/tp/tp_nr.html#R Raphanea(e)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605201153/http://www.tabula-peutingeriana.de/tp/tp_nr.html#R |date=2016-06-05 }} in the ''Tabula Peutingeriana''
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Category:Catholic titular sees in Asia Category:Former populated places in Syria Category:Archaeological sites in Hama Governorate