Basilinopolis or Basilinoupolis (Greek: Βασιλινούπολις) was a town in Bithynia Prima (civil Diocese of Pontus), which obtained the rank of a city under, or perhaps shortly before, Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate, whose mother was Basilina. Its exact site is not known. W. M. Ramsay, placed it on the western side of the Lake of Nicaea, near Pazarköy, between Kios (now Gemlik) and Nicaea (Iznik). Modern scholars tentatively identify its site near Yalakdere in Kocaeli Province.

Bishopric

It was a suffragan of the Metropolis of Nicomedia, in the sway of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. At the Council of Chalcedon (451), the Metropolitans of Nicomedia and Nicaea were in sharp dispute about jurisdiction over the see of Basilinopolis. The council decided to assign it as a suffragan of Nicomedia. It was still reckoned as such in 1170 under Byzantine emperor Manuel Comnenus. The see does not figure in a Notitia episcopatuum of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople after the 15th century, probably indicating that the city was destroyed in the Osmanli conquest. Historically documented bishops were:

Catholic titular see

The diocese was nominally restored in no later than the 17th century as Latin titular bishopric of Basilinopolis (Latin; adjective Basilinopolitanus) or Basilinopoli (Curiate Italian). It is vacant since 1973, having had the following incumbents, all of episcopal rank :

Notes and references

Sources and external links