Evidence ID
E00735Saint Name
Anonymous martyrs : S00060Saint Name in Source
μάρτυρεςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)Evidence not before
400Evidence not after
800Activity not before
400Activity not after
800Place of Evidence - Region
Asia MinorPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
HisaralanPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Hisaralan
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
NicomediaCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Women
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
Inscription on a marble column: H. 0.75 m; diameter 0.29 m. The text was written inside a rectangular frame: H. 0.225 m; W. 0.2 m.Discussion
This is a simple invocation of unnamed martyrs written by Ammia and Trophimos, otherwise unattested persons. Louis Robert supposes that the martyrs were patrons of a local sanctuary. François Halkin proposed that they could be the *Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (ob. early 4th c.) or the *Forty-Two Martyrs of Amorion but he based this on an erroneous reading of the first line. He did not recognise the monogram (which is not visible in the published photograph), and thought that it was a letter Μ which he considered as the numeral 40.Bibliography
Edition:
Robert, L., Études Anatoliennes. Recherches sur les inscriptions grecques de l'Asie-Mineure (Paris: De Boccard, 1937), 213, n. 3
Further Reading:
Destephen, S., "Martyrs locaux et cultes civiques en Asie Mineure", in: J.C. Caillet, S. Destephen, B. Dumézil, H. Inglebert, Des dieux civiques aux saints patrons (IVe-VIIe siècle) (Paris: éditions A. & J. Picard, 2015), 88.
Halkin, F., "Bulletin des publications hagiographiques", Analecta Bollandiana 59 (1941), 367-368.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1941), 122b.
