In the Roman Church (the mostly Latin Rite 'Western Patriarchate' of Rome), archbishops and bishops were classed according to the seniority of their consecration, and in Africa according to their age.
In the Eastern patriarchates, however, the hierarchical rank of each bishop was determined by the see he occupied.
Thus, in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the first Metropolitan was not the longest ordained, but whoever happened to be the incumbent of the See of Caesarea; the second was the Archbishop of Ephesus, and so on.
In every ecclesiastical province, the rank of each Suffragan (see) was thus determined, and remained unchanged unless the list was subsequently modified.
The only known Notitia episcopatuum for the Church of Antioch is that drawn up in the sixth century by Patriarch Anastasius (see Vailhe in Échos d'Orient, X, pp.