Hephaestus, Egypt

Hephæstus was a town in Roman Egypt, in the province of Augustamnica Prima, the eastern part of the Nile Delta.

The name Hephæstus is known only from ecclesiastical sources; its Egyptian name and its site are unknown.

Ecclesiastical history

The original diocese was in Augustamnica Prima, a suffragan of Pelusium.^[1]

It is mentioned by Hierocles^[2] and by George of Cyprus, as among the thirteen towns of Augustamnica Prima.

Lequien^[3] mentions only two bishops: John, who took part in two Councils of Ephesus (First, 431 and Second, 449), and Peter, present at the Council of Constantinople in 459.

It remains a Roman Catholic titular see.

Notes

1. Parthey's Notitia Prima and the Coptic allusion to it published by J. de Rougé, in his "Géographie ancienne de la Basse Egypte" (Paris, 1891, 157).
2. Synecdemus, 727, 9.
3. Oriens christianus, II, 547.

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Hephæstus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton. The entry cites:
  • Heinrich Gelzer, Georgii Cyprii descriptio orbis romani (Leipzig, 1890), 112;
• Smith, Dict. Greek and Roman Geogr., s. v.