The Epistle to the Colossians, an early Christian text which identifies its author as Paul the Apostle, is addressed to the church in Colossae.

A significant city from the 5th century BC onwards, it had dwindled in importance by the time of Paul, but was notable for the existence of its local angel cult.

[1] It was part of the Roman and Byzantine province of Phrygia Pacatiana, before being destroyed in 1192/3 and its population relocating to nearby Chonae (Chonai, modern-day Honaz).

[6][7][8] The medieval poet Manuel Philes incorrectly imagined that the name Colossae was connected to the Colossus of Rhodes.

[9] More recently, in an interpretation that ties Colossae to an Indo-European root that happens to be shared with the word kolossos, Jean-Pierre Vernant has connected the name to the idea of setting up a sacred space or shrine.

Strabo notes that the city drew great revenue from the flocks, and that the wool of Colossae gave its name to colour colossinus.

[14] In 396 BC, Colossae was the site of the execution of the rebellious Persian satrap Tissaphernes, who was lured there and slain by an agent of the party of Cyrus the Younger.

[19] It is believed that one aim of the letter was to address the challenges that the Colossian community faced in its context of the syncretistic Gnostic religions that were developing in Asia Minor.

who was not personally at the Council of Chalcedon, but whose metropolitan bishop Nunechius of Laodicea, the capital of the Roman province of Phrygia Pacatiana, signed the acts on his behalf.

Nevertheless, sources suggest that the town may have decreased in size or may even been completely abandoned due to Arab invasions in the seventh and eighth centuries, forcing the population to flee to resettle in the nearby city of Chonai (modern day Honaz).

It was a suffragan diocese of Laodicea in Phyrigia Pacatiana but was replaced in the Byzantine period by the Chonae settlement on higher ground.