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E01123: Greek inscription with the epitaph of a presbyter of a church dedicated to unnamed *Archangels. Found at Ankyra (Galatia, central Asia Minor). Probably late 5th-6th c.

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posted on 2016-02-15, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

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ὁ δοῦλος τοῦ θ(εο)ῦ Παῦλος ὁ
τῆς εὐλαβ(οῦς) μνήμης γενάμε-
νος πρεσβ(ύτερος) τῶ(ν) ἀρχαγέλω(ν),
καὶ ἐτελεύτησεν μινὶ
Ἰουνίου αʹ, ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) ιβʹ.

'+ The servant of God Paulos, former presbyter of blessed memory of the church of the Archangels, fell asleep here. And he died on the 1st (day) of the month of June, in the 12th indiction.'

Text: Jerphanion 1928, no. 63.

History

Evidence ID

E01123

Saint Name

Archangels (unspecified) : S00191

Saint Name in Source

ἀρχάγελοι

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/Archangels_unnamed_or_name_lost/13729642

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

450

Evidence not after

600

Activity not before

450

Activity not after

600

Place of Evidence - Region

Asia Minor

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Ankyra

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

Ankyra Nicomedia Νικομήδεια Nikomēdeia Izmit Πραίνετος Prainetos Nicomedia

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy

Source

A large marble slab. The inscription was framed by a tabula ansata and accompanied by a carving of a cross, that was erased, probably in the modern period. Letter height c. 0.025 m. Seen and copied before 1928 by Guillaume de Jerphanion. When recorded, it was reused in the ceiling (inserted face-down) of Tower 15 of the citadel at Ankyra. Published by Jerphanion with the aid of Alfred von Domaszewski.

Discussion

The inscription is the epitaph of a presbyter, who served at a church dedicated to unnamed archangels. Stephen Mitchell suggested that dedicating churches to groups of saints was a peculiar Ancyran habit, as we know that at the city there were also: a martyrion of the (Montanist?) Patriarchs, a martyrion of the (Montanist?) Fathers (see the Martyrdom of Theodotos of Ancyra 16, EXXXXXXXX), and possibly a church of unnamed saints (see E01004). Dating: Probably late 5th-6th c.: the inscription must predate the construction of this section of the citadel, where it was reused, which according to Jerphanion falls in the 6th c.

Bibliography

Edition: de Jerphanion, G., Mélanges d'archólogie anatolienne. Monuments préhelléniques, gréco-romains, byzantins et musulmans de Pont, de Cappadoce et de Galatie (Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph 13, Beyrouth: Imprimerie Catholique, 1928), p. 289, no. 63. Inscriptiones Christianae Graecae database, no. 779: http://www.epigraph.topoi.org/ica/icamainapp/inscription/show/779 Further reading: Mitchell, St., "The Life of Saint Theodotus of Ancyra", Anatolian Studies 32 (1982), 105.