View source for Parium

{{Short description|Ancient city in Turkey}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
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'''Parium''' (or '''Parion'''; {{langx|el|Πάριον}}) was a [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] city of [[Adrasteia (Mysia)|Adrasteia]] in [[Mysia]] on the [[Hellespont]]. Its bishopric was a [[suffragan]] of [[Cyzicus]], the [[metropolitan see]] of the [[Roman province]] of [[Hellespontus (province)|Hellespontus]].

==History==
Founded in 709 B.C., the ancient city of Parion is located in the village of Kemer in the township of [[Biga, Çanakkale|Biga]] in [[Çanakkale]] province of [[Turkey]], currently. A major coastal city with two harbors in the Roman period, Parium had intensive relations with [[Thrace]] and [[Anatolia]] throughout history. This was the main customs station through which all [[Istanbul]]-bound goods from Greece and the Aegean had to pass.

According to [[Strabo]], it was a colony of [[Milesians (Greek)|Milesians]], [[Erythrae]]ans, and [[Paros|Parians]].<ref>{{Cite Strabo|xiii p. 588}}</ref>

It belonged at one point to the [[Achaemenid Empire]]. Herophantus was a tyrant of Parion under [[Darius I]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tuplin |first1=Christopher |title=Persian Responses: Political and Cultural Interaction with(in) the Achaemenid Empire |date=2007 |publisher=ISD LLC |isbn=9781910589465 |page=126 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cwFPDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 |language=en}}</ref>

It then belonged to the [[Delian League]].  In the [[Hellenistic period]] it came under the domain of [[Lysimachus]], and subsequently the [[Attalid dynasty]].  In [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] times, it was a [[Colonia (Roman)|colonia]], within the [[Roman province|province]] of [[Asia (Roman province)|Asia]]; after that province was divided in the 4th century, it was in the province of [[Hellespontus (province)|Hellespontus]].  The ancient coinage of Parium is quite abundant, attesting to its great output and advanced mint (in Hellenistic times, the city's badge shown on coins was the [[Gorgoneion]]).<ref>[http://www.asiaminorcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=106 Asia Minor Coins - ancient coins of Parium]</ref>

==Christian history==
The Acts of the [[martyr]] [[St. Onesiphorus]] prove that there was a Christian community there before 180. Other saints worthy of mention are: [[St. Menignus]], martyred under [[Decius]] and venerated on 22 November; [[St. Theogenes]], bishop and martyr, whose feast is observed on 3 January; [[Basil the Confessor]], bishop and martyr in the eighth century, venerated on 12 April.

[[Le Quien]] (''Oriens christianus'' I, 787–90) mentions 14 bishops, the last of whom lived in the middle of the fourteenth century. An anonymous Latin bishop is mentioned in 1209 by [[Pope Innocent III|Innocent III]] (Le Quien, op. cit., III, 945) and a titular bishop in 1410 by [[Eubel]] (''Hierarchia Catholica medii ævi'', I, 410).

At first a suffragan of the [[Archbishopric of Cyzicus|Archbishopric]], Parium became an [[autocephalous]] [[archdiocese]] as early as 640 ([[Heinrich Gelzer]], ''Ungedruckte ... Texte'', 535) and remained so till the end of the 13th century. Then the Emperor [[Andronicus II Palaeologus]] made it a [[metropolis]] under the title of '''Pegon kai Pariou'''.

In 1354 the residential see of [[Biga, Çanakkale|Pegae]] and Parium (the Latin forms of both names) were suppressed, the incumbent [[Metropolitan bishop|metropolitan]] receiving in exchange the See of [[Sozopolis, Thrace|Sozopolis]] in [[Thrace]] (Miklosich and Müller, "Acta patriarchatus Constantinopolitani", I, 109, 111, 132, 300, 330). This was the end of the residential see.

The see is included in the [[Catholic Church]]'s list of [[titular see]]s.<ref>''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, {{ISBN|978-88-209-9070-1}}), p. 950</ref>

The ruins of Parium were under Ottoman rule at the Greek village of [[Kamares, Achaea|Kamares]] (the vaults), on the small cape Tersana-Bournou in the [[qadaa|caza]] and [[sandjak]] of [[Bigha]].

== Archaeology ==

Archaeologists have been carrying out excavations at the ancient site since 2005. Sarcophagi and graves, as well as ancient artifacts were found in the area. In 2017, ancient toys from the [[Hellenistic Period]] have been discovered inside tombs belonging to children, believed to be buried with the aim to accompany the children on their journey to the afterlife. Also, a baby bottle was discovered around the same necropolis.<ref>[https://www.dailysabah.com/history/2017/09/28/2000-year-old-toys-discovered-inside-childrens-tombs-in-turkeys-canakkale 2,000-year-old toys discovered inside children's tombs in Turkey's Çanakkale]</ref>

In Parion there was a monumental altar which, according to the ancient writer [[Strabo]], had sides the length of a [[Stadion (unit)|stadion]]. The building was sometimes classified as one of the seven [[Wonders of the World]], but there is no archaeological evidence of it.<ref>On the altar see Schreyer, Julian (2023). "Unsichtbar präsent. Der Monumentalaltar des Hermokreon in Parion und seine Inszenierung als wiederverwertetes Heiligtum" [Invisibly Present. The Monumental Altar of Hermokreon in Parion and Its Staging as a Recycled Sanctuary]. ''[[Istanbuler Mitteilungen]]'' '''73''', pp. 84-97.</ref>

== Notable people ==
* Herophantos ({{langx|grc|Ἡρόφαντος}}) of Parion, tyrant of Parion.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-grc1:4.138 Herodotus, Histories, 4.138]</ref>
* Peregrinus Proteus, a cynic philosopher during the second century AD.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DP%3Aentry+group%3D9%3Aentry%3Dperegrinus-proteus-harpers Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Peregrinus Proteus]</ref><ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=peregrinus-proteus-bio-1 A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Peregrinus Proteus]</ref>

== See also ==
* [[List of ancient Greek cities]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* P. Frisch (ed.), ''Die Inschriften von Parion'' (Bonn, 1983) (Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien 25).

==External links==
*{{CathEncy|title=Parium|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11503a.htm}}

{{Ancient settlements in Turkey}}

{{Catholic|wstitle=Parium}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Coord|40.4162|N|27.0703|E|source:wikidata|display=title}}

[[Category:Populated places established in the 8th century BC]]
[[Category:Catholic titular sees in Asia]]
[[Category:Populated places in ancient Mysia]]
[[Category:Defunct dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey]]
[[Category:Greek city-states]]
[[Category:Parian colonies]]
[[Category:Milesian colonies]]
[[Category:Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast]]
[[Category:Coloniae (Roman)]]