Kaunos (Carian: Kbid; Lycian: Khbide; Ancient Greek: Καῦνος; Latin: Caunus) was a city of ancient Caria, Anatolia, a few km west of the modern town of Dalyan, Muğla Province, Turkey. Kaunos was said to have been founded by Kaunos, son of Miletos and Kyane, on the southern coast of Caria, opposite Rhodes. It was in a district later under the jurisdiction of Rhodes known as Peraea, Peræa Rhodiorum (Latin form) "the Rhodian Shore", at the foot of Mount Tarbelos. Its acropolis was called Imbros. It exported, chiefly to Rome, highly prized figs. It was the home of the painter Protogenes. It was a member of the Chrysaorian League.
The ruins of the city are near Dalyan, on the right bank of the ancient Kalbis. Among them are a theatre, a large rectangular building that may have been a temple, others of uncertain description, a Byzantine church, and rock-hewn tombs.
Kaunos was Christianized early, and bishops are known beginning from the 4th century. Four bishops are mentioned by Lequien (I, 981): Basil, who attended the Council of Seleucia in 359; Antipater, who attended the Council of Chalcedon in 451; Nicolaus, who subscribed the letter to Emperor Leo in 458; and Stephanus, who attended the Council of Nicaea in 787. The Synecdemus of Hierocles and most Notitiae Episcopatuum, as late as the 12th or 13th century, place it in Lycia, as a suffragan of Myra.
Kaunos remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church, Cauniensis; the seat has been vacant since the death of the last bishop in 1972. [1]