Caloe

Caloe was a town in the Roman province of Asia. It is mentioned as Kaloe or Keloue in 3rd-century inscriptions, as Kalose in Hierocles's Synecdemos (660), and as Kalloe, Kaloe, and Kolone in Parthey's Notitiæ episcopatuum, in which it figures from the 6th to the 12fth or 13th century.

Description

Caloe was in the upper valley of the Kutchuk-Mendérès (Caÿstrus) in western Turkey, and is identified with the modern Kilis, Keles, Kelas, to the southwest of Alaşehir (ancient Philadelphia).

The bishopric of Caloe was a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Ephesus and was thus within the Roman province of Asia. Lequien was therefore mistaken in supposing that the titular see was named after Lake Koloe in Lydia, near which were the tombs of Lydian kings and the temple of Artemis Koloene.

The names of three of its bishops are known because their participation in councils: Aphobius in the Council of Ephesus of 431; Gregorius in the Trullan Council of 692; and Theophanes in the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.