Inscribed 'reliquary cross', commissioned as an ex-voto offering by a certain Ioannes. Provenance: Seleukeia/Seleucia ad Calycadnum in Isauria (southern Asia Minor) or Seleukeia/Seleucia Pieria near Antioch on the Orontes (north Syria). 6th c. or later.
Evidence ID
E01826
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Inscribed objects
Images and objects - Other portable objects (metalwork, ivory, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Extant reliquaries and related fixtures
On the lower vertical branch of the cross:
Ἰωάν-
νης
υεἱὸς
Ἐνγο-
λίου
εὐξά-
μενος
τὴν εὐ-
χὴν ἀ-
πέδω-
κα.
'I, Ioannes, son of Engolios, having made a vow, fulfilled it.'
Text: IGLS 3/2, no. 1211.
Non Liturgical ActivityVow
RelicsReliquary – institutionally owned
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEx-votos
Vow
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Prayer/supplication/invocation
RelicsReliquary – institutionally owned
Reliquary – privately owned
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOther lay individuals/ people
Cult Related ObjectsEx-votos
Crosses
Source
A metal 'reliquary cross' (presumably hollow). H. 0.25 m. The upper branches are decorated with globes. The lower vertical branch bears the inscription.Acquired by the British Museum in 1896, from the collection of Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks. Reported provenance: Seleucia. First published by Ormonde Dalton in 1901. Republished by René Mouterde and Louis Jalabert in 1953, based on a new copy by Jalabert.
Discussion
The inscription says that the cross was an ex-voto offering of a certain Ioannes, son of Engolios (Aingolios/Engolis/Egolis, etc.). If it contained relics, there is no record of what these were.Dalton published the cross, marking the provenance simply as 'Seleucia', without a precise identification of this city. Mouterde argued that this could be either Seleukeia/Seleucia ad Calycadnum (modern Silifke) in Isauria or Seleukeia/Seleucia Pieria (modern Suadiye) near Antioch on the Orontes (north Syria). Though he reasonably pointed out that both the name of Ioannes' father and the formula εὐξάμενος τὴν εὐχὴν ἀπέδωκα are characteristic of southeast Asia Minor (see: E01082; E01083 and Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua 3, no. 56), he eventually published the object under Seleukeia Pieria.
Dating: Dalton dated the cross stylistically to the 6th or later centuries.
Bibliography
Edition:Jalabert, L., Mouterde, R. (eds.), Les inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 3/2: Antioche (suite). Antiochène: nos. 989-1242 (BAH 51, Paris: P. Geuthner, 1953), no. 1211.
Dalton, O.M., Catalogue of early Christian Antiquities and Objects from the Christian East in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum (London: Printed by order of the Trustees, 1901), 113, no. 566.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
30/08/2016
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | Certain |
|---|
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Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E01826 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01826