Evidence ID
E00914Saint Name
Thekla, follower of Apostle Paul : S00092Saint Name in Source
ΘέκλαType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Inscribed architectural elementsEvidence not before
450Evidence not after
650Activity not before
450Activity not after
650Place of Evidence - Region
Asia MinorPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
DorylaionPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Dorylaion
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
NicomediaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
Two inscriptions written next to each other on a column, found near a road at Kaymaz near Dorylaion (Phrygia, central Asia Minor). The column may originally have stood in a church.Discussion
The first part of the inscription, name Thekla, was perhaps an invocation or a statement that Thekla was the patron of the sanctuary, where the column was originally located. The meaning of the second part is not clear. It may be the name of a supplicant (Damolas, Molas?), perhaps preceded by the preposition διὰ, e.g. διὰ Μολᾶ (by Molas). For the name Molas, see Tituli Asiae Minoris I 32. In the Inscriptiones Christianae Graecae database Ulrich Huttner argues that the second word is written from right to left: Μανδαλος, which stands for the name of a nearby city, Mantalos.Bibliography
Edition:
Kirchhoff, A., "Inscriptiones Asianae Graecae et Latinae a Mordtmanno descriptae", Annali dell'Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica 33 (1861), 186, no. 29.
Inscriptiones Christianae Graecae database, no. 1438: http://www.epigraph.topoi.org/ica/icamainapp/inscription/show/1438
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), 77, note 53; 102.
