Tius

(TIUM)

Titular see, suffragan of Claudiopolis in Honorias. According to Strabo (542, 545) the town was not remarkable save as the birthplace of Philetaerus, founder of the royal dynasty of Pergamus. The coins give Dionysius as the founder; in fact it was the site of a temple of Dionysius and one of Jupiter. Le Quien (Oriens christ., I, 575) mentions among its bishops : Apragmonius at the Council of Ephesus in 431; Andrew in 518; Eugenius in 536; Longinus at the Sixth General Council in 681; Michael at the Seventh General Council in 787; Constantine at the Eighth General Council in 869 and author of an account of the transfer of the relics of St. Euphemia of Chalcedon (Acta SS., Sept., V, 274-83). This see figures in all the "Notitiae episcopatuum" . Novel xxix of Justinian locates the town in Paphlagonia. George Pachymerus (I, 312) mentions Tium among the Byzantine towns which escaped the ravages of the Seljuks in 1269. The modern village of Filias stands on the ruins of ancient Tium, which included that remains of ramparts and sculptures. The village is in the caza of Hamidye and the vilayet of Castamouni, not far from the mpouth of the Filias-Tchai, the Billaeus.