COLOSSE (Ko.losgai, Kol.ogai, Latin COLOSSE). — A city of Greater Phrygia, on the left bank of the Lycus, 25 km from Laodicea. Built against the stark and picturesque backdrop of Mount Cadmus, on the road linking Ephesus to central Asia, it was the most important city of southwestern Phrygia and an active commercial center until it was eclipsed by Laodicea (v.), founded by Antiochus II Theos (261–246), which absorbed its trade. For this reason, while Herodotus (VII, 30) and Xenophon (Anab., I, 2, 26) recall C. as a beautiful and populous city, and Pliny (Hist. nat., V, 145)—certainly referring to its past—places it among the most celebrated towns, Strabo (XII, 576) instead classifies it among the small cities (πολματα). Of it, also as a result of the earthquakes that struck the region, only scant and unimportant ruins remain, 4 km from the present-day village of Khonas.
C. is remembered almost solely for the letter that St. Paul addressed to its Christian community (v. COLOSSESI, EPISTOLA ai). This community had most probably been founded while Paul was residing in Ephesus (54–57), during his third missionary journey, by Epaphras, who held a prominent position there (Col. 1:7). It consisted mainly of Gentile Christians (Col. 1:21, 27; 2:13), though Jews were not lacking, being quite numerous in the Lycus valley, as the errors spreading among the faithful seem to confirm. Epiphanius, bishop of C., attended the Council of Chalcedon (451), and Dositeus attended the Second Council of Nicaea (787). Today it is a titular archiepiscopal see.