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E00890: Greek epitaph for an archdeacon and supervisor at the sanctuary of *Philip (the Apostle, S00109) in Hierapolis (Phrygia, wst central Asia Minor). Found in Hierapolis. Probably 5th-6th c.

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posted on 2015-11-25, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

Α (christogram) Ω
Εὐγένιος ὁ ἐλ[ά]χιστος ἀρχιδιάκ(ονος) κ(αὶ) ἐφεστ(ὼς) τοῦ ἁγίου
κ(αὶ) ἐνδόξου ἀποστόλου κ(αὶ) θεολόγου Φιλίππου

'Eugenios, the most hu[m]ble archdeac(on) a(nd) supervis(or) of the holy a(nd) glorious Apostle a(nd) theologian Philip.'

Text: Tabbernee 1997, no. 83.

History

Evidence ID

E00890

Saint Name

Philip the Apostle, ob. 1st c. : S00109 Philip the Deacon and Evangelist : S00604

Saint Name in Source

Φίλιππος Φίλιππος

Related Saint Records

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

400

Evidence not after

600

Activity not before

400

Activity not after

600

Place of Evidence - Region

Asia Minor

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Hierapolis

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Hierapolis Nicomedia Νικομήδεια Nikomēdeia Izmit Πραίνετος Prainetos Nicomedia

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy Officials

Source

Inscription on a sarcophagus. Seen and copied by Charles Robert Cockerell between 1810 and 1814, later edited by Ernest Arthur Gardner from Cockerell's manuscripts. Now lost, and there is no detailed description.

Discussion

The inscription is the epitaph of an important cleric of the sanctuary of *Philip the Apostle in Hierapolis, probably a supervisor at the octagonal martyrion of Philip or at the three-aisled basilica, located next to the martyrion. The author of the epitaph calls Philip, the patron of the sanctuary, both the Apostle and the Theologian. The latter epithet was, however, characteristic not of the Apostle, but of *Philip the Deacon and Evangelist, mentioned, for instance, in Acts 6:5 as one of the original seven deacons of the church in Jerusalem and in Acts 21:8-9 as an evangelist and father of four prophetising virgins. At some point these two Philips were confused with each other as both, according to the tradition, preached the Gospel in central Anatolia and had holy daughters. Dating: probably 6th c. (a dating proposed by Sylvain Destephen, based on the confused epithets of the saint). Earlier attempts to date the inscription referred to the hypothesis that Eugenios was a leader of a Montanist community, supposedly dwelling in Hierapolis and destroyed by imperial forces at the beginning of the 6th c.

Bibliography

Edition: Tabbernee, W. (ed.), Montanist Inscriptions and Testimonia: Epigraphic Sources for Illustrating the History of Montanism (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1997), no. 83. Grégoire, H., "Notes épigraphiques", Byzantion 8 (1933), 73. Judeich, W. (ed.), "Die Inschriften", [in:], Altertümer von Hierapolis, eds. C. Human, C. Cichorius, W. Judeich, F. Winter (Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Ergänzungsheft 4, Berlin: G. Reimer, 1898), no. 24. Ramsay, W.M., Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, vol. 1, part 2: West and West-Central Phrygia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1897), 552-553, no. 419. Gardner, E.A., "Inscriptions copied by Cockerell in Greece, II", The Journal of Hellenic Studies 6 (1885), 346. Inscriptiones Christianae Graecae database, no. 919: http://www.epigraph.topoi.org/ica/icamainapp/inscription/show/919 Further reading: D'Andria, F., "L'iscrizione dipinta con la Preghiera di Manasse a Hierapolis di Frigia", Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia 78 (2005-2006), 427. D'Andria, F., "The sanctuary of St Philip in Hierapolis and the tombs of saints in Anatolian cities", in: J.R. Brandt, E. Hagelberg, G. Bjørnstad, and S. Ahrens, Life and Death in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Times (Studies in Funerary Archaeology 10, Oxford - Philadelphia: Oxbow, 2017), 11 and note 7. D'Andria, F., and others "Il santuario e la tomba dell'apostolo Filippo a Hierapolis di Frigia", Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia 84 (2011-2012), 1-52. Destephen, S., Prosopographie du Diocese d'Asie (325-641) (Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire 3, Paris: Association des amis du centre d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance, 2008), Eugénios 21. Destephen, S., "Martyrs locaux et cultes civiques en Asie Mineure", in: J.P. Caillet, S. Destephen, B. Dumézil, H. Inglebert, Des dieux civiques aux saints patrons (IVe-VIIe siècle) (Paris: éditions A. & J. Picard, 2015), 91. Halkin, F., "Inscriptions grecques relatives à l'hagiographie, IX, Asie Mineure", Analecta Bollandiana 71 (1953), 330. Huttner, U., Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley (Ancient Judaism and early Christianity 85, Early Christianity in Asia Minor 1, Leiden: Brill, 2013), 265, 274, 370. Reference works: Bulletin épigraphique (2013), 521. For the cult of Philip in Hierapolis, see also: D’Andria, F., "Hierapolis alma Philippum. Nuovi scavi, ricerche e restauri nel Santuario dell’apostolo", Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia 39 (2016-2017), 3-90 (forthcoming). Gümgüm, G., Il Martyrion di Hierapolis di Frigia, Turchia: analisi archeologica e architettonica (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2012).

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Keywords

S00109 S00604 History

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