E02857: Greek inscription, once wrongly thought to have mentioned a Christian orphanage affiliated with a church of *Mary (Mother of Christ, S00033). Found at Caesarea Maritima (Roman Province of Palaestina I). Probably 5th - mid-7th c.

The inscription was first published by Joseph Germer-Durand in 1895. This scholar, however, did not make a proper copy but reproduced the text from memory (the present lines 2 and 4). Based on this 'transcription' Raphaël Savignac and Charles Clermont-Ganneau argued for the existence of an orphanage affiliated to a church of Mary in Caesarea, as they restored the lines as follows τῇ ἁγιω[τάτῃ Θεοτόκῳ (?)] | ἤτοι τῷ εὐ[κτηρίῳ] | ὀρφαν(ο)τροφίῳ/'to the most holy [God-Bearer (Theotokos)], or the [oratory], the orphanage' (see Clermont-Ganneau 1905, 209: 'Si les restitutions que j'indique sous réserves sont exactes, cet asile d'orphelins aurait été placé sous l'invocation de la Vierge.').

Kenneth Holum and Clayton Lehmann in 2000, in their corpus of inscriptions of Caesarea, rightly noted that the restoration of the name of Mary in the lacuna is unjustified. Walter Ameling in the Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae (2012) plausibly suggests that the inscription could refer simply to 'the most holy church'/'τῇ ἁγω[τάτῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ]'. In her comments in Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum to Ameling's edition, Leah Di Segni suggested that the whole inscription might have read: + ̣θ̣ή̣κ̣η [διαφέρουσα] | τῇ ἁγιω|[τάτῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ] | ἤτοι τῷ εὐαγ[εῖ - - -] | ὀρφαν<ο>τροφίῳ [vacat?]/ '+ A (collective) tomb [belonging] to the most holy [church (of Caesarea?)], or the reverend [- - -] orphanage.'