Evidence ID
E01387Saint Name
Ten Martyrs of Crete, ob. c. 249-251 : S00823Saint Name in Source
Εὐαρέστ[ος]Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Inscriptions - Inscribed architectural elementsEvidence not before
400Evidence not after
600Activity not before
400Activity not after
600Place of Evidence - Region
Aegean islands and Cyprus
Aegean islands and CyprusPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Crete
Agioi DekaPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Crete
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
Constantia
Agioi Deka
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
ConstantiaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Bequests, donations, gifts and offeringsCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
Three fragments of marble blocks, almost certainly from a cymatium molding. Two of them conjoin.
Fragment A: L. 0.36 m.
Fragments B + C: L. 0.47 m.
Letter height 0.025 m.
Found in 1901 buried near the church of Saint Titus in the village of Agioi Deka, during the excavations supervised by Stephanos Xanthoudides. First published by him in 1903.
Xanthoudies implausibly joined Fragment A with Fragment C, and therefore his reading differs from that of later editors. Interestingly, though Margheritta Guarducci correctly arranged the fragments on the drawing, she retained the implausible reading by Xanthoudides for Fragment A. For the correct reading and arrangement of fragments, see: Bandy 1971, no. 29.Discussion
The inscription is very fragmentarily preserved, so all conclusions drawn from its contents are highly hypothetical. Anastasios Bandy identified it as either a sepulchral or a dedicatory text.
Fragment A bears only one understandable word, which is the name 'Euaristos'. The name was borne by one of the Ten Martyrs of Crete, put to death under the emperor Decius (249-251), and venerated on the island. Given the fact that the inscription was found at the village of Agioi Deka, named after these Ten Martyrs, we can suppose that the martyr Euaristos might be mentioned here (as argued by Xanthoudides), or that a bishop (of Gortyna, as suggested by Guarducci and Bandy) or a lesser ecclesiastic, called after that saint, is referred to. Another possibility is that the inscription refers to a church dedicated to the saint.
Fragments B and C offer us just the word 'bishop' in the genitive case, proving, however, that the inscription dealt with ecclesiastical issues.
Dating: Bandy dates the inscription to the 5th/6th c., based on the form of letters and contents.Bibliography
Edition:
Bandy, A.C., (ed.), The Greek Christian Inscriptions of Crete (Athens: Christian Archaeological Society, 1971), no. 29.
Guarducci, M., Inscriptiones Creticae, vol. 4: Tituli Gortynii (Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1950), no. 464.
Gerola, G., Monumenti veneti nell'isola di Creta, vol. 4 (Venice 1932), 549, no. 24.
Xanthoudides, S., “Χριστιανικαί επιγραφαί Κρήτης”, Ἀθηνᾶ 15 (1903), 127.
Further reading:
Halkin, F., "L'Egypte, Chypre, la Crète et les autres îles grecques. La Grèce continentale et les pays balkaniques. L'Italie et la Sycylie", Analecta Bollandiana 70 (1952), 120.
