Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Barca

by Louis Petit

A titular see of Cyrenaica in Northern Africa. According to most archaeologists it was situated at Medinet el Merdja, but according to Graham (Roman Africa) at Tolometa, or Tolmeita. After being often destroyed and restored, it became, during the Roman period, a mere borough (Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, I, 459), but was, nevertheless, the site of a bishopric. Its bishop, Zopyros (Zephyrius is a mistake), was present at the Council of Nicaea in 325 (Gelzer, Patrum Nicaenorum nomina, 231). The subscriptions at Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451) give the names of two other bishops, Zenobius and Theodorus. The see must have disappeared when the Arabs conquered the Pentapolis in 643 (Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt, 430).

Lequien, Oriens Christ., II, 625: Gams, Series episcop., 462.

L. Petit.