1. The bishopric of Blaundus
During the Byzantine period the city of Blaundus, built on the banks of river Ippourios, an affluent of Maiandros, was a bishopric of the province of Lydia, subordinated to the metropolis of Sardeis. During the Early Byzantine period a Christian community of Arians might have dwelled in the city (possibly along with the Orthodox community of the city).1In the notitiae episcopatuum of the Middle and the Late Byzantine periods, Blaundus was registered in the 18th,19th or 20th rank amongst the bishoprics of the province of Lydia (in a total of 25 to 28 bishoprics). The bishopric of Blaundus appears in certain manuscripts of the Notitia nr. 7 (of the early 10th century) as the bishopric of “Balandou, that is Gaudeias”, whereas in a few manuscripts of the Notitia nr. 10 (of the late 10th century) the see was mentioned as the bishopric of “Blandos, that is Mesotymolos”. The bishop of Blaundus participated in the Fourth Ecumenical Council (451) of Chalcedon.
1. According to Fedalto, G., Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis. Series Episcoporum Ecclesiarum Christianarum Orientalium, vol. 1: Patriarchatus Constantinopolitanus (Padova 1988), p. 183. The author, based on Socrates, mentions the Arian bishop Phoebus. In Socrates’ text it is not mentioned whether Phoebus was the bishop of Blaundus. See "Socrates Scholasticus, Historia Ecclesiastica" in: Migne, J.P. (ed.) Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Greca 67, col. 345.