TIATIRA. - A city of Lydia, founded, or rather embellished and enlarged, Seleuco I (v.), who settled Macedonian colonists there, on the site where Akhisar now stands.
The locality housed a military garrison, given its strategic position with respect to Mysia and Lydia, but its fame was connected with its industry, especially the textile industry, widespread throughout the region since the time of Homer (cf. Iliade, IV, 141 sg.). From this city came Lidia (v.), who received the apostle Paolo at Philippi after having enthusiastically embraced the Christian religion (Act. 16, 14).
Information concerning the state of Christianity in T., which was perhaps evangelized by the Apostle’s collaborators during his stay at Ephesus (ibid. 19, 8-10), is supplied by the Apocalypse (2, 18-29). While noting the zeal and goodness of the first converts, it alludes in metaphorical terms to the spread of a perverse doctrine, accompanied by serious moral laxity. In all probability this was the doctrine of the Nicolaitans (v.), mentioned in the letter addressed to nearby Pergamo (ibid. 2, 15). Angelo Penna