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E01132: Greek epitaph for a deacon of a sanctuary of unnamed Apostles, probably the apostoleion of Peter (S00038) and *Paul (S00008) at the estate of Rufinianae. Found near Chalkedon/Chalcedon (Bithynia, north-west Asia Minor), probably 5th-6th c.

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posted on 2016-02-19, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

ἐνθά[δε κ]-
ατάκιτε <δ>[ιά]-
κονος + <Ε>ἰο[ά]-
νις + τ<ῶ>[ν]
ἁγίων ἀ[π]-
ωστόλον

'Here lies the deacon + Ioannes + (of the church) of the holy A[p]ostles.'

Text: Feissel 1987, no. 21.

History

Evidence ID

E01132

Saint Name

Apostles (unspecified) : S00084 Paul, the Apostle : S00008 Peter the Apostle : S00036

Saint Name in Source

ἀπώστολοι

Related Saint Records

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Funerary inscriptions

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

400

Evidence not after

600

Activity not before

400

Activity not after

600

Place of Evidence - Region

Asia Minor

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Chalcedon

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Chalcedon Nicomedia Νικομήδεια Nikomēdeia Izmit Πραίνετος Prainetos Nicomedia

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy

Source

The inscription was seen and copied by Johann Heinrich Mordtmann before 1885 at Erenköy (near Chalkedon), but it had probably been brought there from another location. First published by X. Sideridis in 1908 after Mordtmann's copy, sent to him in a letter dated 1899. There is no detailed description of the stone.

Discussion

The inscription is the epitaph for a deacon of a church dedicated to the Apostles. In a letter to Sideridis, Mordtmann noted that this was almost certainly the martyr shrine built by Rufinus, a pretorian prefect of the East (392-395) under the emperor Theodosius I, at his estate of Rufinianae, and connected to the monastery of Rufinianae. The mid-5th c. Life of Hypatios says that the shrine was located close to Chalkedon and that Rufinus, in c. 393, acquired some relics of Peter and Paul the Apostles at Rome, and deposited them in this martyrion (66, 16-25, see E01133). Denis Feissel rightly dismisses Mordtmann's idea that, based on this inscription, we could identify the site of Rufinianae precisely as Erenköy - because the stone was said to have been brought to the town from elsewhere. Dating: probably 5th or 6th c. (based on the contents).

Bibliography

Edition: Feissel, D., "De Chalcédoine à Nicomédie, quelques inscriptions négligées", Travaux et Mémoires 10 (1987), no. 21. Miliopoulos, I., Ἀρχαιολογικαὶ ζητήσεις, [1921], 8. Sideridis, X., Syll. Const., 30 (1908), 219. Reference works: Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 37, 1045.

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Keywords

S00084 S00008 S00036 History

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CC0

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