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E02667: Greek inscription with the name of *George (soldier and martyr, S00259). Found at Eitha Caesarea/El-Hît, to the northwest of Maximianopolis/Sakkaia in the Hawran plain (the Roman province of Arabia). Probably 6th c.

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posted on 2017-04-07, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

ἅγιος Γαιόργι(ο)ς

'Saint George.'

Text: Waddington 1870, no. 2126.

History

Evidence ID

E02667

Saint Name

George, soldier and martyr of Diospolis, ob. c. 303 : S00259

Saint Name in Source

Γαιόργις

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/George_soldier_and_martyr_and_Companions/13729822

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.) Archaeological and architectural - Cult buildings (churches, mausolea)

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

500

Evidence not after

600

Activity not before

500

Activity not after

600

Place of Evidence - Region

Arabia Arabia

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Sakkaia / Maximianopolis Eitha Caesarea/El-Hît

Place 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 Shakka

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs

Appropriation of older cult sites

Source

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).