Evidence ID
E01026Saint Name
Mamas, martyr in Kaisareia/Caesarea of Cappadocia : S00436Saint Name in Source
ΜαμᾶςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptionsEvidence not before
400Evidence not after
800Activity not before
400Activity not after
800Place of Evidence - Region
Asia Minor
Asia MinorPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Kaisareia/Caesarea in Cappadocia
LimnaiPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Kaisareia/Caesarea in Cappadocia
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
Nicomedia
Limnai
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
A slab found in the ruins of a Christian building at Gülcük (ancient Limnai near Sasima and Nazianzus, to the south-west of Kaisareia). There is no published description.Discussion
The inscription is the epitaph of a certain Longinos Balibardas. The fact that Longinos built an oratory dedicated to a saint serves here as his primary identifying characteristic – beside this, we learn nothing about his social status or wealth. For other inscriptions, where people are identified in the same way, see E00902 (Kastor who built a sanctuary of the martyr *Kyrikos), E00710 (Armenis who built an unspecified martyr shrine, probably also of the martyr Kyrikos), and E01239 (Anatolios, who built a church dedicated to *John, unspecified).
Interestingly, the shrine built by Longinos, is not called a martyrion but an oratory (εὐκτήριον). Perhaps it was just a chapel and not an independent building. The shrine was dedicated to Mamas, most probably the martyr of Kaisareia in Cappadocia, praised in sermons by Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus (see E00719 and E00912).
The phrase τὸν θεὸν ἡμῖν, which we find in line 4, can be understood either as ὁ θεὸς ἡμῖν / 'may God be with us' or τῷ θεῷ ἡμῶν / 'for our God' (as the functions of the dative case were being gradually taken over by the accusative case in Late Antiquity). Louis Robert and François Halkin preferred the former option, as they compared the phrase with the formula τὸν θεόν σοι· μὴ ἀδικήσεις / 'may God be with you, so that you may not sin', quite frequent in Phrygian epitaphs. It is also possible that the pronoun ὑμῖν was here swapped for ἡμῶν, which is frequent in late antique inscriptions.Bibliography
Edition:
Robert, L., Hellenica, Recueil d'épigraphie, de numismatique et d'antiquités grecques, vol. 2 (Paris: La librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient Adrien Maisonneuve, 1946), 156.
Levides, Α.Μ., Αἱ ἐν μονολίθοις μοναὶ τῆς Καππαδοκίας καὶ Λυκαονίας / Hai en Monolithois monai tēs Kappadokias kai Lykaonias (Kōnstantinoupolei: Typois Alexandrou Nomismatidou, 1899), 173.
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), 100.
Halkin, F., "Inscriptions grecques relatives à l'hagiographie, IX, Asie Mineure", Analecta Bollandiana 71 (1953), 91.
