Evidence ID
E02084Saint Name
Sergios, martyr in Syria, ob. 303-311 : S00023Saint Name in Source
ΣέργιοςImage Caption 1
Drawing by M. Sartre. From: I. Jordanie 5/1, 319.Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)Language
GreekEvidence not before
450Evidence not after
600Activity not before
450Activity not after
600Place of Evidence - Region
Arabia
ArabiaPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Bosra
Umm al-QuṭṭeinPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Bosra
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
Shakka
Umm al-Quṭṭein
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
ShakkaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationSource
Stone lintel over the doorway of a house in the north sector of the village. There is no published description.
Seen and copied by Maurice Sartre. Now lost. A preliminary transcription was published by Annie Sartre-Fauriat in 2000. The proper first edition, by Nabil Bader, followed in 2009.Discussion
When recorded, the inscription was very fragmentarily preserved, and the name of Saint Sergios was its only element left. Since the stone seems to have been a lintel, and the name of the saint is in the genitive case, we can suppose that the text referred to a church dedicated to the saint (i.e. 'Church of Saint Sergios'); or perhaps the God of Saint Sergios was invoked here (for similar invocations in the territory of Bostra, see E02078; E02079; E02083).
There is no reliable way to date this inscription, but references to the cult of Saint Sergios appear in dated inscriptions in our region only in the late 5th and 6th c.Bibliography
Edition:
Bader, N. (ed.), Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 21: Inscriptions de la Jordanie, part 5: La Jordanie du Nord-Est, fasc. 1(Beirut: Institut français du Proche-Orient, 2009), no. 698.
Further reading:
Sartre-Fauriat, A., "Georges, Serge, Élie et quelques autres saints connus et inédits de la province d'Arabie", in: Fr. Prévot (ed.), Romanité et cité chrétienne. Permances et mutations. Intégration et exclusion du Ier au VIe siècle. Mélanges en l'honneur d'Yvette Duval (Paris: De Boccard, 2000), 304.
Reference works:
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 50, 1518; 50, 1544.