Pharbaetus

Sheten or Šetennu, also known by the Greco-Roman name of Pharbaethus or Pharbaetus (Φαρβαϊθίτης), was a town in the Nile Delta, capital of the nome of Pharbaethites/Lapt in Lower Egypt.^[1][2]

It is referred to in a stele of the 7th century BC,^[2] and described by Herodotus,^[3] Strabo,^[4] and Pliny.^[5]

The Greco-Roman name of Pharbaetus comes from the Egyptian p 'the' + Hor abot, a popular name for Hor-mer (Horus of two eyes).^[2] This name is reproduced under the form Karbeuthos in George of Cyprus.^[6]

Ecclesiastical history

The original diocese was a suffragan of Leontopolis, in Augustamnica Secunda, Egypt.

There is a record of Bishop Arbetion at Nicæa in 325,^[7] and Bishop Theodorus in 1086,^[8] but it is possible that the latter was bishop of another Pharbætus situated further to the west, and which according to Vansleb was equally a Coptic see. John of Nikiu^[9] relates that under the Emperor Phocas (602-10) the clerics of the province killed the Greek governor Theophilus.

It remains a Roman Catholic titular see under the name Pharbaetus.

References

1. Karl Baedeker, Egypt: handbook for travellers : part first, lower Egypt..., 1885 (2nd edition), p. 33. full text
2. Eugène Revillout, "Acte de fondation d'une chapelle à Hor-Merti dans la ville de Pharbaetus", Revue Égyptologique, 2:1:32 (1881) full text
3. II, 166.
4. XVII, i, 20.
5. Natural History V, 9, 11.
6. "Descriptio orbis romani", ed. Gelzer, 706.
7. Gelzer, "Patrum nicænorum nomina", LX.
8. Renaudot, "Historia patriarcharum alexandrinorum", 458.
9. Chronicle, CV.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pharbætus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton. The entry cites:
  • Heinrich Gelzer, Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis romani, 114-16;
  • ROUGÉ, Géographie ancienne de la Basse Egypte (Paris, 1891), 66-74;
  • Émile Amélineau, La Géographie de l'Egypte à l' époque copte (Paris, 1893), 330.