Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/41

 RHINOCOLURA

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BHO

appear in ancient authors) was an important town at the northern extremity of Mesopotamia near the sources of the Chaboras (now Khabour), on the way from Carrhai to Nicephorium about eighty miles from Nisibis and forty from Dara. Near by Gordian III fought the Persians in 243. Its coins show that it was a Roman colony from the time of Septimus Severus. The "Notitia dignitatum" (ed. Boecking, I, 400) represents it as under the jurisdiction of the governor or Dux of Osrhoene. Hierocles (Synec- demus, 714, 3) also locates it in this province but under the name of Theodosiopolis; it had in fact obtained the favour of Theodosius the Great and taken his name. It was fortified by Justinian. In 1393 it was nearly destroyed by Tamerlane's troops. To-day under the name of Rds-el-'Ain, it is the capital of a caza in the vilayet of Diarbekir and has only 1500 inhabitants. Le Quien (Oriens christianus, II, 979) mentions nine bishops of Rhesajna: Antiochus, pres- ent at the Council of Nica;a (325); Eunomius, who (about 420) forced the Persians to raise the siege of the town; John, at the Council of Antioch (444); Olym- pius at Chalcedon (451); Andrew (about 490); Peter, exiled with Severian (518) ; Ascholius, his suc- cessor, a Monophysite; Daniel (550); Sebastianus (about 600), a correspondent of St. Gregory the Great. The see is again mentioned in the tenth century in a Greek "Notitiae episcopatuum" of the Patriarchate of Antioch (Vailh6, in "Echos d'Orient", X, 94). Le Quien (ibid., 1329 and 1513) mentions two Jacobite bishops: Scalita, author of a hymn and of homilies, and Theodosius (1035). About a dozen others are known.

Revue de V Orient chrit. VI (1901), 203; D'Herbelot, Bibl. orientate, I, 140; III, 112; Ritter, Erdkunde, XI, 375; Smith, Diet. Greek and Roman Geogr., 8. v., with bibliography of ancient authors; MOller, notes on Ptolemy, ed. Didot, I, 1008; Chapot, La frontihre de I'Euphrate de Pompie d la conqukte arabe (Paris, 1907), 302.

S. P^TRIDfcs.

Rhinocolura, titular see in Augustamnica Prima, suffragan of Pelusium. Rhinocolura or Rhinocorura was a maritime town so situated on the boundary of Egypt and Palestine that ancient geographers attrib- uted it sometimes to one country and sometimes to the other. Its history is unknown. Diodorus Siculus (I, 60, 5) relates that it must have been founded by Actisanes, King of Ethiopia, who established there convicts whose noses had been cut off; this novel legend was invented to give a Greek meaning to the name of the town. Strabo (XVI, 781) says that it was formerly the great emporium of the merchandise of India and Arabia, which was unloaded at Leuce Come, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea, whence it was transported via Petra to Rhinocolura. It is identified usually with the present fortified village El Arish, which has 400 inhabitants, excluding the gar- rison, situated half a mile from the sea, and has some ruins of the Roman period. It was taken by the French in 1799, who signed there in 1800 the treaty by which they evacuated Egypt. To-day it and its vicinity are occupied by Egypt, after having been for a long period claimed by Turkey. The village is near a stream which bears its name (Wadi el-Arish), and receives its waters from central Sinai; it does not flow in winter, but is torrential after heavy rain. It is the "nahal Misraim", or stream of Egypt, fre- quently mentioned in the Bible (Gen., xv, 18, etc.), as marking on the south-west the frontier of the Promised Land. Instead of the ordinary translation of the Hebrew name, the Septuagint in Is., xxvii, 12, render it by 'FivoKdpovpa; see St. Jerome (In Isaiam, XXVII, 12 in P. L., XXIV, 313).

Le Quien (Oriens Christianus, II, 541) gives a list of thirteen bishops of Rhinocolura: the first does not belong to it. A Coptic manuscript also wrongly names a bishop said to have assisted in 325 at the

Council of Nice. The first authentic titular known is St. Melas, who suffered exile under Valens and is men- tioned on 16 January in the Roman Martyrology. He was succeeded by his brother Solon. Polybius was the disciple of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus, whose life he wrote. Hermogenes assisted at the Council of Ephesus (431), was sent to Rome by St. Cyril, and received many letters from his suffragan St. Isidore. His successor Zeno defended Eutyches at the Second Council of Ephesus (451). Other bishops were: Alphius, the Massalian heretic; Ptolemy, about 460, Gregory, 610. Of the other bishops on the list one did not belong to Rhinocolura; the other three are Coptic heretics.

Reland, PalfBstina, 285, 969 sq.; Smith, Diet. Greek and Roman Geogr., s. v.; MtJLLER, notes on Ptolemy, ed. Didot, 1, 683; ViGOUROux, Did. de la Bible, a. v. Egypte (torrent ou ruisseau d'); AmiSlineau, Geographie de I'Egypte d Vepoque copte, 404: Ritter, Erdkunde, XVI, 143; XVI, 39, 41.

S. PflTRID^S.

Rhithymna (Rhethymna), a titular see of Crete, suffragan of Gortyna, mentioned by Ptolemy, III, 15, PHny, IV, 59, and Stephen of Byzantium. Noth- ing is known of its ancient history but some of its coins are extant. It still exists under the Greek name of Rhethymnon (Turkish, Resmo, It. and Fr. Retimo). It is a small port on the north side of the island thirty- seven miles south-west of Candia; it has about 10,000 inhabitants (half Greeks, half Mussulmans), and some Catholics who have a church and school. Rhithymna exports oil and soap. During the occupa- tion of Crete by the Venetians it became a Latin see. According to Corner (Creta sacra, II, 138 sq.), this see is identical with Calamona. P'or a list of twenty- four bishops (1287 to 1592) see Eubel (Hier. cath. med. a;vi, I, 161; II, 128; III, 161). Three other names are mentioned by Corner from 1611 to 1641. The Turks who had already ravaged the city in 1572, captured it again in 1646. At present the Greeks have a bishop there who bears the combined titles of Rhethymnon and Aulopotamos. The date of the foundation of the see is unknown. It is not men- tioned in the Middle Ages in any of the Greek "Notitiai episcopatuum".

Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Geogr., a. v.

S. P^TRIofes.

Rhizus, 'PtfoOj, a titular see of Pontus Pole- moniacus suffragan of Neocaesarea, mentioned by Ptolemy (V, 6) as a port on the Black Sea (Euxine) ; it is referred to also in other ancient geographical documents, but its history is unknown. Procopius (" De bello gothico", IV, 2), tells us that the town was of some importance and that it was fortified by Justinian. He calls it Rhizaion, and it is so styled in the "Notitia; Episcopatuum". It was originally a suffragan of Neocaesarea, then an " autocephalous " archdiocese, finally a metropolitan sec; the dates of these changes are uncertain. With the decrease of the Christian element the suffragan has become a simple exarchate. To-day there are no more than 400 Greeks among the 2000 inhabitants of Rizeh, as the Turks call the town. It is the capital of the Sanjak of Lazistan in the Vilayet of Trebizond, and exports oranges and lemons. Le Quien (Oriens christianus, I, 517), mentions three bishops; Necta- rius, present at the Council of Nice, 787; John, at the Council of Constantinople, 879, and Joachim (met- ropolitan) in 1565.

Smith, Diet. Greek and Roman Geogr., a. v.; Mulleb, Notes on Ptolemy, ed. Didot, I, 868.

S. P^TRIDfcs.

Rho, GiACOMO, missionary, b. at Milan, 1593; d. at Peking 27 April, 1638. He was the son of a noble and learned jurist, and at the age of twenty entered the Society of Jesus. While poor success attended his early studies, he was later very proficient in