Cusae (; )[ was a city in Upper Egypt. Its name was qjs (variant qsy), conventionally rendered Qis or Kis, with many further transliterations such as Qosia. Today, the town is known as El Quseyya, and is located on the west bank of the Nile in the Asyut Governorate.
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History
Cusae was the capital of the 14th Nome of Upper Egypt.
Middle Kingdom
It was a cult centre for Hathor, and also contained a necropolis, Meir, which was used during the Middle Kingdom to hold the tombs of local aristocrats.
New Kingdom
At the beginning of the reign of the Theban pharaoh Kamose, Cusae marked the boundary between the northern Hyksos realm (the 15th Dynasty) and the southern Theban kingdom (the 17th Dynasty).
Roman Period
During the 5th century, the city was the settlement of Legio II Flavia Constantia.
Bishopric
The bishopric of Cusae was a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Antinoë, capital of the Roman province of Thebaid. Achilles (or Achilleus) was ordained bishop of the see by Meletius of Lycopolis. Another, Elias, was of the 4th or 5th centuries.[S. Timm, Das christlich-koptische Ägypten, Wiesbaden 1982-1992, 2181 e 2189 n. 4.] Theonas took part in the Second Council of Constantinople (553). Later bishops took the non-Chalcedonian side, the first of them being Gregorius, who assisted Pope John II (III) of Alexandria on his deathbed.[Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. II, coll. 595-598][Raymond Janin, v. Cusae in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XIII, Paris 1956, col. 1117][Klaas Worp, A Checklist of Bishops in Byzantine Egypt (A.D. 325 - c. 750), Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 100 (1994) 283-318][ Sophrone Pétridès, "Cusae" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1908)]
No longer a residential bishopric, Cusae is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 878]
See also
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List of ancient Egyptian towns and cities
