C OLO SS F, properly COLOSSiE (K oNoo-aaf), a city of Phrygia, on the river Lycus (now Gorduk), not far from its confluence with the IVIander, and near the towns of Laodicea, Apamea, and Hierapolis (Col. ii. i ; iv. 13, 15 ; comp. Plin. Hist. Nat. v. 41 ; Strabo, xii. p. 576). [The reading of the best MSS. of the N. T. is KoXaaaai. There can be no doubt that KoXoaaal is the proper spelling of the name, but the other was probably in accord ance with the common pronunciation, and on this account was used by Paul.] A. Christian church was formed here very early, probably by Epaphras (Col. i. 7 ; iv. 12, sq.), consisting of Jews and Gentiles, to whom Paul, who does not appear to have ever visited Colossoe in person (Col. ii. i), ad dressed an Epistle from Rome. Not long after the town was, together with Laodicea and IIiera polis, destroyed by an earthquake. This, accord ing to Eusebius, was in the ninth year of Nero ; but the town must have been immediately rebuilt, for in his twelfth year it continued to be named as a flourishing place (Nicet. Chron. p. I's). It still
subsists as a village named Khonas, an identifica tion which is due to Mr. Hamilton (Res. in Asia Minor, i. soS). The huge range of Mount Cad mus rises immediately behind the village, close to which there is in the mountain an immense per pendicular chasm, affording an outlet for a wide mountain torrent. The ruins of an old castle stand on the summit of the rock forming the left side of this chasm. There are some traces of ruins and fragments of stone in the neighbourhood, but barely more than sufficient to attest the exist ence of an ancient site ; and that this site was that of Colossm is satisfactorily established by the Rev. F. V. J. Arundell, whose book (Discoveries in Asia Alinor) contains an ample description of the place.