Zile

Zile is a city in eastern Turkey and an important agricultural trading centre. It is the site of the ancient city of Zela.

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This section incorporates text from the public domain Catholic Encyclopedia.

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Zela is a titular see of Asia Minor, suffragan of Amasea in the Helenopontus. In pagan times the city, which was situated on the Seylax, belonged to priests, equal in dignity to the princes of Pontus, lords of the territory. On the eminence which rises in the middle of the city stood a famous temple, consecrated by the Persian kings to their national divinities, Anahita, Vohu-Mano, and Anadates. Zela is famous for the victory of Mithridates Eupator over Valerius Trianus, lieutenant of Lucullus (67 BC), also for that of Caesar over Pharnaces (47 BC), after which he wrote his famous letter, "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered). At first a mere hamlet, Zela obtained from Pompeii the title of city, and became the capital of a district allotted to Queen Pythadoris (Strabo, XI, viii, 4; XII, iii, 37; Pliny, "Hist. Nat.", VI, 8). It was finally ceded to Nero, with all Pontus Polemoniacus, by its last king, and remained part of the Greco-Roman empire until 1397, when the Turks seized it. According to a letter (72) of St. Basil, a council was held there by the Arians in the fourth century. Le Quien (Oriens christ., I, 541) mentions several bishops: Heraclius, at Nice (325); Atticus, at Chalcedon (451); Hyperechius (458), Georgius (692); Constantine (787); Paul (879). According to the "Acta Patriarchatus Constantinopolitani" of Miklosich and Muller (I, 69), there was a bishop at Zela in 1315; he was then named Metropolitan of Amasea; later the see was suppressed. For a while, Zela, known as Zilch, was a kaza in the sandjak of Tokat.

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Catholic Encyclopedia: The Catholic Encyclopedia is an English-language encyclopedia published in 1913 by the Roman Catholic Church, designed to give "authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine"....

Titular see: A titular see in the Roman Catholic Church is a diocese that now exists in title only. It is led by a ceremonial titular bishop, an honorific granted on certain priests by the Pope. Bishops who do not have proper authority over an existing diocese are normally given a titular see by the Vatican. The...