Evidence ID
E01784Saint Name
Unnamed martyrs (or name lost) : S00060
Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, ob. early 4th c. : S00103Saint Name in Source
μάρτυρες
μ΄ μάρτυρεςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Cult buildings (churches, mausolea)Evidence not before
400Evidence not after
700Activity not before
400Activity not after
700Place of Evidence - Region
Syria with Phoenicia
Syria with PhoeniciaPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Hierapolis Euphratensis
El-BirePlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Hierapolis Euphratensis
Thabbora
Thabbora
El-Bire
Thabbora
ThabboraCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergySource
A mosaic inscription with depictions of birds and flowers. Black letters on white background. Letter height 0.06-0.07 m. There is no published image and description.
Found between 1919 and 1929 at El-Bire, to the south east of modern Manbij/ancient Hierapolis-Bambyke. First published by René Mouterde and Louis Jalabert in 1929, from a copy by Charles Virolleaud. In 1988 [1991] Pauline Donceel-Voûte noted that the mosaic was probably left in situ, as she could not find it in any museum.Discussion
The inscription commemorates the paving of an oratory (eukterion), dedicated to some unnamed martyrs, by a deacon Ioulianos. The donor says that he used his own revenues for this undertaking. Unfortunately, we know nothing about the archaeological context of the find. The first editors had no image for publication with their transcription and the site was apparently not visited by later scholars. Line 4 tells us that this martyr shrine was named an eukterion, but this term denoted a number of structures: independent churches and chapels, as well as chambers and chapels adjacent to other buildings.
In our inscription the term eukterion is poorly spelt: οἰκτήριον. Most scholars corrected this reading to εὐκτήριον (first, independently, Louis Robert and Guillaume de Jerphanion). However, in an oral communication to Pauline Donceel-Voûte, Pierre Canivet suggested that the word could be read οἰκ<η>τήριον/'house, habitation, dwelling-place'. Nonetheless, Donceel-Voûte rejects this possibility as less probable than the previously established reading.
The end of line 5, which contained the word 'martyrs', is almost completely lost. But, since the lacuna is immediately preceded by the epithet καλλινίκων/'of the gloriously triumphant', and by a designation of a shrine, we can safely suppose that the name of the patron saints should be restored there. As the lacuna is very short, it is almost certain that either the martyrs were unnamed (καλλινίκων μ[αρτύρων]) or that, as suggested by François Halkin, the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste are in question (καλλινίκων μ΄[μαρτύρων]/'of the gloriously triumphant 40 [martyrs]). Though some relics of the Forty Martyrs were housed in nearby Apamea-on-the-Orontes (see: E01832), this hypothesis is less convincing, as references to shrines of unnamed martyrs are frequent in Syria.Bibliography
Edition:
Donceel-Voûte, P., Les pavements des églises byzantines de Syrie et du Liban. Décor, archéologie et liturgie (Publications d’histoire de l’art et d’archéologie de l’Université catholique de Louvain 69, Louvain-La-Neuve: Département d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art, 1988), 33.
Jalabert, L., Mouterde, R., Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 1: Commagène et Cyrrhestique (BAH 12, Paris: P. Geuthner, 1929), no. 252a.
Further reading:
Ashkenazi, J., "Family rural churches in late antique Palestine and the competition in the ‘field of religious goods’: A socio-historical view", Journal of Ecclesiastical History 68 (2018), 713.
Halkin, F., "Inscriptions grecques relatives à l'hagiographie, II, Les deux Phénicies et et les deux Syries", Analecta Bollandiana 67 (1949), 99.
Jalabert, L., Mouterde, R., Les inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 3/2: Antioche (suite). Antiochène: nos. 989-1242 (BAH 51, Paris: P. Geuthner, 1953), 682 (addendum).
de Jerphanion, G., "Bibliographie", Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph (Beyrouth, Lebanon) 15 (1930-1931), 308.
Moralee, J., 'For salvation's sake': provincial loyalty, personal religion, and epigraphic production in the Roman and late antique Near East (New York; London: Routledge, 2004), chapter 4 note 3 (and other inscriptions).
Mouterde, R., "Les découvertes intéressant l'archéologie chrétienne, récemment effectuées en Syrie", in: Atti del III congresso intérnazionale di archeologia cristiana: Ravenna 25-30 Settembre 1932 (Rome: Pontificio Istituto di archeologia cristiana, 1934), 472.
Mouterde, R., Jalabert, L., Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 2: Chalcidique et Antiochène: nos 257-698 (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1939), 381 (addendum).
Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1930), p. 213 (note by L. Robert).
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 7, no. 61.
