Mela is not mentioned in the list of cities of the Byzantine Empire given in the Synecdemus written by Hierocles in about 530, but it appears in all the subsequent Notitiae Episcopatuum.
[1] Sophrone Pétridès stated that, as well as Justinianopolis Nova, other names used for Mela were Medrena and Melina.
He said that from the 12th century onward we find only Melagina, Melangeia, or Melania, showing that it is the Malagina often mentioned by Byzantine historians as the first large station of the imperial armies in Asia Minor on the road from Constantinople to Dorylaeum, and an important strategic point.
[2] Ramsay reported that the Notitiae Episcopatuum usually speak of the bishops as "of Modrene, that is, of Mela" (Μοδρηνῆς ἤτοι Μελῆς), showing that the cities of Mela and Modra or Modrene were near enough to each other to form a single bishopric.
[2] However, the expression Μοδρηνῆς ἤτοι Μελῆς appears in only three of the Notitiae Episcopatuum, all three of which are of the 12th century.