CONSTA´NTIA
CONSTA´NTIA or
CONSTANTI´NA (
Κωνσταντία, Hier. p. 714;
Κωνσταντίνα, Suid.,
Steph. B. sub voce Nicephorium; Procop. B. P. 2.13;
Amm. Marc. 18.7), a town of some importance in Mesopotamia, on the road between Nisibis and Carrhae, at no distance from Edessa, which, after his departure from Nisibis, was the residence of the Dux Mesopotamiae till the foundation of Dara (Procop.
de Aed. 2.5).
There is considerable variation in different authors in the way in which the name of this town is written. Stephanus B calls it Constantina, and states that it was another name for Nicephorium; Suidas, Constantina and Constanteia, which latter form occurs also in the Itinerary of Hierocles.
In the Excerpt. Procop. ap. Photium, it is called
[p. 1.657]Constantia; so also in the Notit. Imp. Roman. under the Dux Mesopotamiae. Evagrius (
H. E. i.) entitles Sophronius
Κωνσταντιναίων Ἐπισκόπον, and in the list of the bishops who subscribed the Council of Chalcedon, he is called Bishop of Constantinopolis in the province of Osrhoene.
It appears to have borne other names, as Antoninopolis and Maximianopolis, in the fourth century, to have been nearly destroyed by an earthquake, but to have been rebuilt by Constantinus. (Chron. Edess. ap. Asseman.
Bibl. Or. i. p. 395; Malala,
Chron. xii. p. 312.)
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