Mallus

A titular see of Cilicia Prima, suffragan of Tarsus. According to legend, Mallus founded by the soothsayers Amphilochus and Mopsus, sons of Apollo. It was situated at the mouth of the Pyramus, on a hill opposite Magarsus which served as its port. It is today the place known as Kara Tash, in the vilayet of Adana. The district was called from it, Mallotis. Alexander built a bridge there and exempted the town from paying taxes. It allied itself with Tarsus against Antiochus IV Epiphanies, who had presented both cities to his concubine Antiochis (2 Maccabees 4:30, 31). Numerous coins from Mallus have been preserved, and those of the third century bear the inscription Mallus Colonia or Colonia Metropolis Mallus. The city is mentioned by numerous ancient authors, and in the Middle Ages by Arabian, Armenian, and Italian writers. It must have disappeared with the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia. It figures in the various revisals of the Antiochene “Notititae Episcopatuum” as suffragan of Tarsus. Six bishops are recorded. Bematius, present at the Council of Antioch (377); Valentine, at Ephesus (431) and at Tarsus (434); Chrysippus at Chalcedon (451). Le Quien (Oriens Christianus. II, 883) confounds Mallus with another bishopric, Mallus or Malus, situated in Pisidia.