Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Olba

by Sophron Pétridès

A titular see in Isauria, suffragan of Seleucia. It was a city of Cetis in Cilicia Aspera, later forming part of Isauria; it had a temple of Zeus, whose priests were once kings of the country, and became a Roman colony. Strabo (XIV, 5, 10) and Ptolemy (V, 8, 6) call it Olbasa; a coin of Diocæsarea, Olbos; Hierocles (Synecdemus, 709), Olbe; Basil of Seleucia (Mirac. S.Theclæ, 2, 8) and the Greek "Notitiæ episcopatuum", Olba. The primitive name must have been Ourba or Orba, found in Theophanes the Chronographer, hence Ourbanopolis in "Acta S. Bartholomei". Its ruins, north of Selefkeh in the vilayet of Adana, are called Oura. Le Quien (Oriens christ., II, 1031) gives four bishops between the fourth and seventh centuries; but the "Notitiæ episcopat." mentions the see until the thirteenth century.

Smith, Dict. Greek and Roman Geog. s.v. Obasa; Ramsay, Asia Minor, 22, 336, 364-75. See Müller's notes to Ptolemy, ed. Didot, II, 898.

S. Pétridès.