Nakoleia

It was a town of Phrygia Salutaris, taking its name in legend from the nymph Nacole (Νακώλη and Νακόλη), and had no history in antiquity.{{CathEncy|wstitle=Nacolia}}

File:Asia Minor ca 842 AD.svg]]

The area was known for its fertility in late Roman times, thanks to the river Parthenios (Seyit Su), and was wooded in the late 4th century (it is now deforested).{{cite encyclopedia | last=Kazhdan | first=Alexander | author-link=Alexander Kazhdan| title = Nakoleia | editor-last=Kazhdan | editor-first=Alexander | editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan |year=1991 | encyclopedia =The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium | publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-504652-6 | page=1434}} It was there that Valens defeated the usurper Procopius in 366 AD (see Battle of Thyatira); under Arcadius it was occupied by a garrison of Goths under Tribigild who revolted against the emperor in 399 AD. As many towns in the region, the town venerated especially the archangel Michael and at least one church is attested to him in the town.{{cite journal |last1=Evcim |first1=Seckin |last2=Olcay Uçkan |first2=Bedia Yelda |editor1-last=Durak |editor1-first=Koray |editor2-last=Jevtic |editor2-first=Ivana |title=The Other Beliefs in Byzantine Phrygia and Their Reflections in Rock-Cut Architecture |journal=Identity and the other in Byzantium: Papers from the fourth International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium, İstanbul 23–25 June 2016 |date=2019 |pages=171–188 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42747099 |access-date=24 September 2023}}

During the Byzantine-Arab wars in the 8th century, the town became a frequent target for Arab raids and was besieged several times. In 782, the town was temporarily captured by the Abbasid Caliphate in 782. Pantoleon the Deacon relates a story in the Miracula S. Michaelis in which attacking Arabs are forced to abandon their siege of the town by the intervention of the archangel after offending him by shooting with a catapult at his church.{{cite book |author1=Theophanes Confessor |author1-link=Theophanes Confessor |title=The chronicle of Theophanes Confessor |date=1997 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0198225687 |page=630 |url=https://archive.org/details/ByzantineAndNearEasternHistoryAD284813/page/n1/mode/2up |access-date=24 September 2023}}

The armies of the First Crusade most likely passed by this town in 1097.{{cite book |last1=Beihammer |first1=Alexander Daniel |title=Byzantium and the Emergence of Muslim-Turkish Anatolia, Ca. 1040-1130 |date=February 2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781351983860 |page=308 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HyYlDwAAQBAJ |access-date=24 September 2023}} The town was permanently conquered by the Seljuk Turks in the late 12th century who called it Kala'-i-Mashihya, the Christian Castle.{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=John P. |title=The Darvishes Or Oriental Spiritualism |date=May 2013 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781135029890 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vah8bxpgi3oC |access-date=24 September 2023}}

At first a suffragan of Synnada, the see of Nakoleia became important in the early 8th century, when its bishop Constantine became one of the leading proponents of Byzantine Iconoclasm under Leo III the Isaurian (ruled 717–741) and was later condemned as an heresiarch at the Second Council of Nicaea (787). Nakoleia was elevated to the rank of an archbishopric between 787 and 862, and eventually to a metropolitan see between 1035 and 1066, when its incumbent appears in the last place among the metropolitans attending a council. The see continued in existence as a metropolis, without suffragans, until the 14th century. Nakoleia is included, with archiepiscopal rank, in the Catholic Church's list of titular seesAnnuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, {{ISBN|978-88-209-9070-1}}), p. 936 and has been left without titular bishops since 1973.{{cite web | url = http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/d4c06.html | title = Nacolia (Titular See) | publisher = Catholic-Hierarchy.org | access-date = 26 January 2014}}

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{{Ancient settlements in Turkey}}

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Category:Populated places of the Byzantine Empire

Category:Populated places in Phrygia

Category:Roman towns and cities in Turkey

Category:History of Eskişehir Province

Category:Former populated places in Turkey

Nacolia

Category:Dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople