Germanicia

Germanicia, a titular see in the province of Euphratensis and the patriarchate of Antioch; incorrectly called Germaniciana and located in Byzacene, Africa. An official document of the Propaganda, the “Catalogo dei vescovati titolari” for 1884 (no. 228, 10) expressly states that the see is Germanicia in Euphratensis. Lequien (Oriens christ., Paris, 1740, II, 939) names five Greek bishops of this city, among them the Arian Eudoxius, future Bishop of Antioch and Constantinople. He also names (II, 1495) four Jacobite bishops, and at least eighteen others are known from the eighth to the thirteenth century (Revue de l’Orient Chretien, 1901, 200), if Germanicia be considered identical with Marash, which has not been ascertained. It is customary to consider these two cities as identical, but the texts collected by Muller, in his edition of Ptolemy’s “Geographia” (965-967), are so contradictory that it is difficult to arrive at any conclusion. Muller prefers to locate Germanicia in the neighboring ruins of Altun-Tash-Kale. If Germanicia and Marash are one, this industrial city, whose climate is very healthy, is situated in a sanjak of the vilayet of Aleppo. It numbers 52,000 inhabitants, about 15,000 of whom are Catholics, comprising Melchites, Armenians, Chaldeans and Latins; 22,000 are Mussulmans. The remainder are either schismatic Christians or Jews.

S. VAILHE