Apros

This article is about an ancient Roman city. For the process simulation software, see Apros (Software).

Aprus or Apri, or in Greek Apros or Aproi (Ancient Greek: Ἄπρος, Ἄπροι) was a Roman city established in the Roman province of Europa. It was probably situated where the modern Turkish village of Kermeyan now stands.

History

The city was founded as Colonia Claudia Aprensis in the mid-1st century AD, probably in connection with the emperor Claudius's annexation of Thracia, and was intended for retired members of the Roman military. It was situated on the Via Egnatia that ran from the Adriatic coast in the province of Illyricum to Byzantium, the city that was to become Constantinople.

In the 4th century, Aprus was the principal city of the region southwest of Heraclea, the capital of the province.

The city was called Theodosiopolis in documents of the 6th century, in honour of Theodosius II, emperor from 401 to 450, or of Theodosius I (347–395).

After the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, the Latin Empire made Theodore Branas (called Li Vernas by Geoffroi de Villehardouin) lord of Apros. In 1206, Tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria destroyed the city, but Branas rebuilt it.

In the Battle of Apros of July 1305, the Catalan Company annihilated the Byzantine imperial army under Michael IX Palaiologos.

Bishopric

In a Notitia Episcopatuum of about 640, the bishopric appears as an autocephalous archdiocese and as the 22nd in order of precedence among 34 sees dependent upon the patriarchate of Constantinople. Perhaps due to error, it is missing from the next such document, composed at the start of the 10th century, but reappears in the middle of the same century. In the 15th century it was dropped from the official lists of the dioceses dependent on the patriarchate of Constantinople.

No longer a residential diocese, it is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.