Fragmentary Greek inscription commemorating the construction of a martyr shrine (martyrion) at Khirbet et-Tîn in the territory of Ḥimṣ/Emesa (northwest Phoenicia), just possibly for relics of *Dasios (martyr of Durostorum, on the Lower Danube, S00187). Dated 539.
Evidence ID
E01676
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Fragment 1:
ἐ̣θ[ε]μελίωσα μαρ(τύριον) (?)
[τοῦ ἁγίου - - -]ου Λε[ό]ντις υἱοῦ Λεοντίου
[εὐχὴν (?) μη(νὶ) Ξανδ]ικ(οῦ) τοῦ νω΄ ἰνδ(ικτιῶν)ου γ΄
1. perhaps + ἐν ὀνόματι Κ(υρίο)υ or χάριτι τοῦ θ(εο)ῦ Lammens || Μάρκος Lammens || 2. perhaps [τοῦ ἁγίου Δασί]ου || 1-3. ἐθ[εμ]ελίωσα Μάρ(κος) | [υἱὸς τ]οῦ Λε[ό]ντις υἱοῦ Λεοντίου | [μηνὶ Ξανθ]ίκ[ου] το[ῦ ἔτους] νω΄ἰνδικ(τιώνος) γ΄Lammens
'[- - -] I, Leontis (?), built from foundations the martyr shrine (martyrion) (?) of Saint [- - -]os as a vow (?) on behalf of my son Leontios. In the month of Xanthikos, the year 850, the 3rd indiction.'
Fragment 2:
+ Δω-
ροστ-
όρου
Β γ + λ
+ Δω|ροστ|όρου | β(οηθοῦντος) Lammens
'+ Of Dorostoron'.
Text: IGLS V, no. 2614.
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityVow
RelicsTransfer/presence of relics from distant countries
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Cult building - independent (church)
Martyr shrine (martyrion, bet sāhedwātā, etc.)
Non Liturgical ActivityVow
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Construction of cult buildings
RelicsTransfer/presence of relics from distant countries
Construction of cult building to contain relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Children
Source
Two fragments of a lintel, decorated with a carving of a cross within a circle.Seen and copied in August of 1898 by Henri Lammens, a Jesuit and scholar of Arabic studies based in Beirut. When recorded, the fragments were reused in a wall of a field. Brought to and stored in a local inn (khan). Revisited by Sébastien Ronzevalle, a Jesuit and scholar of historical geography, archaeology, and Semitic epigraphy, likewise based in Beirut, who offered an improved reading of Fragment 2.
Discussion
This fragmentary inscription commemorates the construction of a martyr shrine (martyrion), possibly as a vow made by a woman, Leontis, for the salvation or repose of her son, Leontios.Henri Lammens, the first editor, did not identify the stone as originally displayed at a place of cult of a martyr, as he expanded the abbreviated word ΜΑΡ in line 1 as the name Μάρκος/'Mark' instead of μαρτύριον/'martyrion'. The latter option is, however, much more plausible, as is prudently pointed out by René Mouterde, the editor of Les inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie.
However, at the same time Mouterde interpreted the word written on Fragment 2 as a personal name, preferably of an artisan ('the work of Dorostoros'). But Louis Robert argued that Δωροστορον/'Dorostoron' is much more likely to be a Greek rendering of the Latin toponym Durostorum in the Roman province of Moesia II (modern Silistra in Bulgaria). The presence of the name of such a remote city in a near eastern religious inscription is difficult to explain, but, based on the contents of Fragment 1, Robert suggested that our sanctuary housed the relics of a martyr, brought to the territory of Emesa from the Danube region (see: Robert 1960, 354-356; BE (1961), 782). Durostorum was renowned for the cult of the martyr *Dasios (see: E00365), and his name could fill the lacuna at the beginning of line 2. Though this reconstruction is really tempting, it is still hypothetical, and therefore we put it only in the apparatus.
Dating: the inscription is dated according to the Seleucid era (the year 850), which, together with the indiction year date, corresponds to AD 539.
Bibliography
Edition:Jalabert, L., Mouterde, R., Mondésert, C., Les inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 5: Émésène (BAH 66, Paris: P. Guethner, 1959), no. 2614.
Lammens, H., “Le pays des Nosairis. Itinéraire et notes archéologiques”, Le musée belge: revue de philologie classique 4 (1900), 301, nos. 37-38.
Further reading:
Leclercq, H., "Nosairis", Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et liturgie, vol. 12/2 (Paris: Librarie Letouzey et Ané, 1936), col. 1623.
Robert, L., "Recherches épigraphiques", Revue des études anciennes 62 (1960), 354-356.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1961), 782.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 20, 384.
Images
)
Drawing; from: IGLS 5, no. 2614.
)
Drawing; from: Lammens 1901.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
28/06/2016
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | Certain | S00187 | Dasios, soldier and martyr of Durostorum (Moesia Inferior, Lower Danube) | Uncertain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E01676 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01676