Choma (Lycia)

Choma (Ancient Greek: Χῶμα) was a place in the interior of ancient Lycia, according to Pliny on a river Aedesa.[1] Ptolemy places Choma as one of the four cities of the Milyas, and places it near Candyba.[2] THe town can be identified with today's village of Hacımusalar in the district of Elmalı.[3]

Bishopric

Since it was in the Roman province of Lycia, the bishopric of Choma was a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Myra, the province's capital. The diocese is documented in the Notitiae Episcopatuum of the patriarchate of Constantinople until the 12th century.[4]

The names of three of its bishops are preserved in extant records. Pionius was at the First Council of Constantinople in 381.[5]Eudoxius was at both the Council of Ephesus in 431 during which he played a role of some importance, when he was part of a delegation sent to order John of Antioch to appear before the council assembly and he was at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, where he seems to have arrived late, missing his name in the attendance list of the first two sessions in 451 and joined the other Lycian bishops in 458 in signing a letter to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian regarding the murder of Proterius of Alexandria.[6]

• Nicolaus was at the Photian Council of Constantinople (879).[7][8]

No longer a residential bishopric, Choma is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[9] Since 1933 Coma has been counted among the bishopric holders of the Catholic Church; the title has not been assigned since September 22, 1978. Its last holder was Joseph Arthur Costello, auxiliary bishop of Newark.

References

1. Pliny. Naturalis Historia. 5.27.
2. Ptolemy. The Geography. 5.3.
3. George Ewart Bean, Choma (Hacimusalar) Lycia, Turkey, in: Richard Stillwell u. a. (Hrsg.), The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1976.
4. Jean Darrouzès, Notitiae episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae. Texte critique, introduction et notes, Parigi 1981, indice p. 488, voce Choma.
5. Sylvain Destephen, Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire 3. Prosopographie du diocèse d'Asie (325-641), Paris 2008 page 809
6. Sylvain Destephen, Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire 3. Prosopographie du diocèse d'Asie (325-641), Paris 2008 page 277-278.
7. Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 983-984
8. Raymond Janin, v. Choma, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XII, Paris 1953, col. 760
9. Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 873

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Choma" . Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.