Evidence ID
E01321Saint Name
Mary, Mother of Christ : S00033Saint Name in Source
ΘεοτόκοςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Graffiti
Inscriptions - Inscribed architectural elementsEvidence not before
400Evidence not after
600Activity not before
400Activity not after
600Place of Evidence - Region
Aegean islands and CyprusPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
SalamisPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Salamis
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
ConstantiaCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Miracles
Other miracles with demons and demonic creaturesCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Aristocrats
OfficialsSource
Inscription in brick-red paint in a medallion on a column in the colonnade of the South Portico of the gymnasium in Salamis/Constantina. Diameter of the medallion: 0,49 m; letter height 0.045-0.065 m. From the rim of the medallion extend streamers, making it look like the eclipsed sun.
The inscription was first recorded in 1955 during excavations by the Department of Antiquities, supervised by Andreas Dikigoropoulos and Vassos Karageorghis. The column later collapsed. Despite it being restored, the right-hand side of the inscription was lost. The text was partially transcribed and published by Arthur Megaw already in 1955 in the excavation report (lines 2-4), but the first complete edition was offered by Terence Bruce Mitford and Ino Nicolaou in The Greek and Latin Inscriptions from Salamis in 1974.
The adjacent column was inscribed in a similar manner, but that text is illegible.Discussion
The inscription is an invocation of Mary, Mother of Christ, as the God-Bearer (Θεοτόκος) on behalf of the count (comes) Konstantinos. The saint is asked to protect him from envy, probably from a curse by envious aristocrats or the so-called 'evil eye'. The first editors, Terence Bruce Mitford and Ino Nicolaou, supposed that Konstantinos was a Count of the East (Comes Orientis), residing in Antioch, as the province of Cyprus was within the diocese supervised by these high-ranking officials. The inscription resembles other common acclamations of Counts of the East, found on Cyprus, and is unlikely to have commemorated any peculiar involvement of the count in the life of the city (for example the restoration of the colonnade, where the inscription was found, as supposed by Megaw).
Dating: Mitford and Nicolaou dated the inscription to the 5th or 6th c., based on the letter forms. It is also probable that the inscription predates the 7th c. Arab raids, which were disastrous for the island.Bibliography
Edition:
Pouilloux, J., Roesch, P., Marcillet-Jaubert J. (eds.), Salamine de Chypre XIII Testimonia Salaminia 2. Corpus épigraphique (Paris: Diffusion de Boccard, 1987), no. 234.
Mitford, T.B., Nicolaou, I.K., The Greek and Latin inscriptions from Salamis (Nicosia: Published for the Republic of Cyprus by the Dept. of Antiquities, 1974), no. 56.
Further reading:
Megaw, A.H.S., "Archaeology in Cyprus, 1955", Archaeological Reports (JHS Supplement) 2 (1955), 44.
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1976), 751.
