Sora

Sora, a titular see in Paphlagonia, suffragan of Gangra. Sora must have been an insignificant town; an inscription discovered at Zorah, a village in the vilayet of Castamouni, in which a local era and the worship of Zeus Epicarpios are mentioned, has enabled its exact position to be fixed. (Doublet in "Bull. de correspondance hellénique", 1889, p. 310.) It was placed later under the government of the Prætor of Paphlagonia (Novel., 29, 1; Hierocles, 695, 7). It is spoken of by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, "De themat.", I, 7. Le Quien ("Oriens christ.", I, 557), mentions six of its bishops: Theodore, represented by his metropolitan at the Council of Chalcedon (451); Olympius, who signed the letter of the bishops of the province to Emperor Leo in 458; John, present at the Council of Constantinople (692); Theophanes, at the Seventh Œcumenical Council of Nicæa (787); Phocas, at the eighth general Council at Constantinople (869); Constantine, at the Photian Council of Constantinople (879). The Greek "Notitiæ episcopatuum" mentions the see till the thirteenth century.

SMITH, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog., s. v.; RAMSAY, Asia Minor (London, 1890), passim.

S. Pétridès.