Helenus, went to Antioch several times in connection with the dispute concerning Paul of Samosata. Le Quien mentions twenty-two of its bishops, of whom several are legendary. Tarsus was the metropolitan see of the province of Cilicia Prima, under the Patriarchate of Antioch. From the 6th century onwards, the metropolitan see of Tarsus had seven suffragan bishoprics (Échos d'Orient, X, 145). The Greek archdiocese, mentioned in the 10th century (Échos d'Orient, X, 98), has existed down to the present day as part of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. At about the end of the 10th century, the Armenians established a diocese of their rite; Saint Nerses of Lambron was its most distinguished representative in the 12th century. Tarsus is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees as a metropolitan see of both the Latin, the Maronite and the Melkite Catholic Church. Residential bishops Lupus, present at the Council of Ancyra in 314; Theodorus, at the Council of Nicaea in 325; Helladius, condemned at Ephesus, and who appealed to the pope in 433; the exegete Diodorus, teacher of Theodore of Mopsuestia and consequently one of the fathers of Nestorianism. Nicholas of Tarsus, who was exiled about 525. Kaynon, bishop of Tarsus fl 560. heretical follower of Athanasius, grandson of Empress Theodora Abaibuus fl.847 John fl. 979 (Jacobite bishop) Athanasius I fl. 936 (Jacobite bishop) Athanasius fl.1141 (Jacobite bishop) Athanasius II fl.1264 (Jacobite bishop) Middle Ages Following the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 630s, the city came into contact with the forces of the Rashidun Caliphate. It is unclear when the town was first captured by the Arabs, but it is clear that it, and the wider region of Cilicia, remained contested between the Byzantines and the new Caliphate for several decades, up to the early 8th century. According to Muslim sources, as he was retreating the Byzantine emperor Heraclius () deliberately withdrew the population and devastated the region between Antioch and Tarsus, creating a no man's land between the two empires. It was not until the early Abbasid period that Tarsus, by then lying in ruins, was reoccupied and refortified, this time as an advance strongpoint within the fortified zone of the al-ʿAwāṣim, stretching from Tarsus northeast to Malatya, and as an assembly point for expeditions against the Byzantine Empire. The first attempt was undertaken by al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba al-Ta'i in 778/9 but was apparently unsuccessful