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Photice or Photike (Ancient Greek: Φωτική) was a city in Epirus in the Roman and Byzantine periods. In the late Middle Ages it was known as Hagios Donatos (Ἅγιος Δονᾶτος).^[1]

History

The city was likely settled since Classical Antiquity, but is only known in later times.^[1] It appears in the 6th-century Synecdemus, and according to Procopius of Caesarea, it was restored by Justinian I (r. 527–565). Procopius says that it originally stood in a marshy situation, and that Justinian built a citadel upon a neighbouring height.^[2] That citadel was likely named after Saint Donatus; in the lists of Justinian's buildings provided by Procopius, there are two forts of that name in the province of Epirus Vetus.^[1]

The city is attested as a bishopric, a suffragan see of the Metropolis of Naupaktos, since the Council of Chalcedon in 451.^[1] Only a few of its bishops are known: John (at the Council of Chalcedon), Diadochus (signatory of a letter on the murder of Proterius of Alexandria to Emperor Leo I the Thracian), Hilarius (signatory of a letter to Pope Hormisdas), Manuel (at the time of Germanus II of Constantinople), Antony (in 1564), and Nicholas (c. 1720).^[3] From the 10th century, the see was moved to nearby Bela, probably for a short time at first; by the 13th century, the bishopric resided permanently at Bela.^[1] By that time, Photice itself was known as Hagios Donatos; the chastel de Saint Donnat was promised as his wife's dowry to Philip of Taranto by Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, Despot of Epirus.^[1]

In the revolt of Epirus in 1338/39 against the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos (r. 1328–1341), Hagios Donatos remained loyal to the emperor.^[1] In 1367 or 1368 the town, under its ruler Bardas, abandoned the allegiance to the Serbian ruler of Epirus, Thomas Preljubović, but in 1380 Thomas purchased its possession.^[1] In 1411 the town submitted to Carlo I Tocco, who later appointed his second son, Torno, as its governor.^[1] Paramythia, which eventually succeeded the settlement, is attested at about the same time. The Ottomans knew the town as "Aidonat Kalesi".^[1]

Location and remains

Its site is located near the modern area of Limponi,^[4]^[5] some 2 km northwest of Paramythia.^[1] Remains of the fortifications on a rocky plateau, stretching in an east–west direction with sheer cliffs to the west, include walls up to 5 m high, remains of a gate with tower, and of a square keep.^[1] The wider area features a number of Byzantine monuments:

At the site of Balsamari, remains of a three-aisled Byzantine basilica, probably dating to the 11th century, dedicated to Saint Photeine. Its dimensions are 13.7 m × 12.3 m, and its walls survived in places up to 2.5 m in height.^[1] West of Balsamari, at Palioklisi, remains of an early Christian basilica on a hilltop. Probably three-aisled, some 20 m × 14 m large, with walls up to 2 m high, in the apse up to 4.5 m.^[1] West of Plioklisi is the Panagia Lampobithra (or Lampovitsa), a ruined small, one-aisled church, some 7 m × 5 m large.^[1]

In Paramythia itself lies the Church of the Dormition or Great Church (Μεγάλη Εκκλησία), a late Byzantine three-aisled basilica.^[1] Some 100 m to the north are remains of a Byzantine bath-house.^[1] Some 3 km south of Paramythia, near the village of Chrysavgi, remains of a three-aisled basilica (6th/7th century).^[1]

Catholic titular see

A titular see of Photice (Italian: Fotice) was established by the Roman Catholic Church in 1933.^[6] It has had two incumbents, and has been vacant since 1978:^[6]