Evidence ID
E01254Saint Name
Michael, the Archangel : S00181
Apikrantios, probably a martyr in the Aegean Islands : S00760Saint Name in Source
Μιχαήλ
Ἀπικρ(άντιος)Image Caption 1
From: Kontoleon 1960, photograph 5.Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)Evidence not before
450Evidence not after
600Activity not before
450Activity not after
600Place of Evidence - Region
Aegean islands and Cyprus
Aegean islands and CyprusPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Naxos (island)
Naxos (city)Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Naxos (island)
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
Constantia
Naxos (city)
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
ConstantiaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Awarding privileges to cult centresSource
A completely preserved white marble slab. H. 0,42 m; W. 0,75 m; Th. 0.24 m; letter height 0.05-0.11 m. Found before 1897 in the city of Naxos. When recorded, it was kept in the garden of a local man, Joseph Sommaripa, next to the ruins of "a castle of the ancient dukes / château des anciens ducs". First edited by André de Ridder in 1897. Currently housed in the Archaeological Museum of Naxos.Discussion
The inscription marked the boundaries of estates (or less probably of the area protected by the privilege of asylum, see: de Ridder 1897, 24) belonging to the church of Michael the Archangel and to the sanctuary of a saint, whose name is abbreviated as ΑΠΙΚΡ. Earlier editors did not attempt to expand it, but Georges Kiourtzian completed it as Apikr(antios), as this name occurs in an invocation on the island of Syros, mentioning a sailor Isidoros, son of Apikrantios, from the island of Gyaros (see: Kiourtzian 2000, no. 117). The name Apikrantios is rare, and the hagiographic tradition says nothing about any saint bearing it. Kiourtzian plausibly identifies the figure as a local martyr of the Cyclades, unknown in other regions. Both the sanctuary of Michael and the presumed sanctuary of Apikrantios are otherwise unattested.
Though this inscription does not say so explicitly, boundary stones were usually bestowed upon sanctuaries by emperors.
Dating: probably late 5th or 6th c., as other boundary stones are usually authorised by emperors of this period.Bibliography
Edition:
Kiourtzian, G., Recueil des inscriptions grecques chrétiennes des Cyclades, de la fin du IIIe au VIIIe siècle après J.-C., (Travaux et mémoires du Centre de recherche d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance. Monographies 12, Paris: De Boccard, 2000), no. 29.
Kontoleon, N.M., “Είδήσεις περὶ τῶν χριστιανικῶν μνημείων τῆς Νάξου”, in: M. Myrtides (ed.), Εἰς μνήμην Κ. Ἀμάντου (1874-1960), (Athens: , 1960), 473.
de Ridder, A., "Inscriptions de Paros est Naxos", Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 21 (1897), 24, no. 11.
Further reading:
Kiourtzian, G., "Pietas insulariorum", [in:] Eupsychia: mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler, vol. 2 (Série Byzantina Sorbonensia 16, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1998), 369-370, 373.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1962), 260.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 50, 771.
