Evidence ID
E02667Saint Name
George, soldier and martyr of Diospolis, ob. c. 303 : S00259Saint Name in Source
ΓαιόργιςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Cult buildings (churches, mausolea)Evidence not before
500Evidence not after
600Activity not before
500Activity not after
600Place of Evidence - Region
Arabia
ArabiaPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Eitha Caesarea/El-HîtPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
Shakka
Eitha Caesarea/El-Hît
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
ShakkaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Appropriation of older cult sitesSource
Stone lintel over a side doorway of reportedly a small temple converted to a church. The temple is sited to the right of the city gate and bears another, pagan, inscription (Waddington 1870, no. 2113= Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 30, 1670).
Seen and copied by William Waddington in the 1860s, and first published by him in 1870. Scheduled for re-edition in the sixteenth volume of the Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie under no. 595.Discussion
The location of the inscription, on a lintel, above an entrance to the sanctuary, suggests that the temple was converted to a church dedicated to George.
Dating: there is no reliable way to precisely date the inscription, but as the building inscription for a church of *Sergios in Eitha (E01650) dates to the mid-6th c., it is plausible that our text comes from roughly the same period.Bibliography
Edition:
IGLS 16, no. 595 (forthcoming).
Waddington, W.H., Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie (Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, Libraires-Éditeurs, 1870), no. 2126.
For an overview of epigraphic sources from the site (focused on the early Roman period), see Sartre, M., "Rome et les Arabes nomades: le dossier épigraphique de Eeitha" in: Genequand, D., Robin, Ch. (eds.), Les Jafnides: des rois arabes au service de Byzance : VIe siècle de l'ère chrétienne : actes du colloque de Paris, 24-25 novembre 2008 (Paris: Éditions De Boccard, 2015), 37-52 (cf. Bulletin épigraphique (2015), 716).
