+ εἷς θεὸς καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα. εὐχὴ Παύλῳ καὶ
Μουσῇ. Διόδωρος πρεσβ(ύτερος). Κῦρος τ[εχνίτ]η[ς]. μηνὸς Λῴου εκʹ τοῦ ϛξυʹ.
1. εὐχὴ Παύλῳ καὶ Μουσῆ de Ricci || 2. Κῦρος [ἔτ]ους ξυ΄ de Ricci
'+ (There is) one God and his Christ and the Holy Spirit. As a vow to Paulos and Moses: Diodoros presbyter, Kyros [architect]. The 25th of the month of Loös, in the 466th (year).'
Text: IGLS 2, no. 535. Translation: W. Prentice, lightly adapted.
Evidence ID
E01806Saint Name
Paulos/Paulinos, martyr of Antioch-on-the-Orontes : S00915
Moses (unspecified) : S00916Saint Name in Source
Παύλος
ΜουσῆςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Archaeological and architectural - Cult buildings (churches, mausolea)
Archaeological and architectural - Extant reliquaries and related fixturesEvidence not before
418Evidence not after
418Activity not before
418Activity not after
418Place of Evidence - Region
Syria with Phoenicia
Syria with Phoenicia
Syria with PhoeniciaPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Antioch on the Orontes
Beroia
Dār QītaPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Antioch on the Orontes
Thabbora
Thabbora
Beroia
Thabbora
Thabbora
Dār Qīta
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 clergy
Merchants and artisansCult Activities - Relics
Reliquary – institutionally ownedSource
Stone lintel from the southeast doorway of the south external wall of the church situated in the northeast part of Dār Qīta in Jabal Barisha. Length of the inscription: line 1: 2 m; line 2: 2.015 m. Letter height 0.03-0.045 m.
This doorway leads to a courtyard with a hostel, adjacent to a little street. In the courtyard, on its right-hand side, next to a wall, there is a stone sarcophagus, on its left-hand side there is a baptistery with an apse. The access to the courtyard from the street is through a gate with another lintel inscription, mentioning AD 431 as the year of the completion of the court and the hostel (see: Prentice 1908, 76; Peña 1997, 87; Millar 2006, 24 and fig. IV). The baptistery was constructed much later, in AD 515/516 (but still before the church of *Sergios, in the southeast part of the village, see: E01805). It is one of the most significant monuments of this kind in Syria.
Our lintel was first published by Seymour de Ricci in 1907, from a copy by the Belgian consul in Aleppo Gio Gosche (in office: 1695-1703). Gosche sent his copies of inscriptions to Gisbert Cuper (professor of history and rhetoric at Deventer, and later a politician, based in the Hague: 1644-1716), where they were included in his collection of manuscripts (for this collection, see: de Ricci 1907, 281). In the 20th c. the inscription was revisited by a number of scholars: the American Archaeological Expedition to Syria 1899-1900 (copy, squeeze, and photograph by William Prentice and Enno Littmann); the Princeton Expedition to Syria; Froment, a French officer stationed in Syria and mapping the Syrian interior, who copied it; and René Mouterde who also copied it. Republished in 1908 and in 1922 by William Prentice, in 1903 and 1920 by Howard Butler, and in 1939 by Louis Jalabert and René Mouterde.Discussion
The inscription commemorates the construction of one of the three known churches of Dār Qīta. It catches the attention because of it is quite early in date and names two unusual saints, Paulos and Moses, to whom the church was dedicated. De Ricci and Prentice did not discuss their identity. Mouterde stated that any identification of the two was impossible. An attempt to identify the former of them was, however, made by François Halkin (1949, 100, note 4), who suggested he might have been: Paulos (or Paulinos), martyr of nearby Antioch (see: S00915), mentioned in a homily on martyrs, attributed (perhaps erroneously) to a certain Eusebios (BHO 700; EXXXX). The list of saints, preserved in this sermon, was studied also by Hippolyte Delehaye, who considered it as a strange combination of bishops and martyrs venerated in the city, composed apparently by a person unaware of other martyr shrines (see: Delehaye 1912, 224-226). Delehaye supposed that Paulos, who was on this list, was actually Paulinos, paired with Hesychios on 31 May in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (EXXXXX) and mentioned on 25 August in the Syriac Martyrology of the early 5th century (E01537). Whether this saint is our Paulos, is of course, disputable. In his later comments, Mouterde was not completely convinced by Halkin's reasoning. So far none of the scholars has raised the problem of the identity of our Moses. He was probably, like Paulos, a Syriac, perhaps Antiochene martyr, as the Old Testament Moses would not be paired with a very local saint. Whether we can identify our Paulos with another documented figure is uncertain; but we can be fairly confident that the church (as many others in this early period) was dedicated to two local saints, almost certainly local martyrs (though this is not explicit in the inscription).
It is tempting to suggest that relics of one of these martyrs were kept and venerated in the sarcophagus in the courtyard, and that this whole space was designed for pilgrims, visiting the church and seeking the intercession of the martyrs. This is, however, a very speculative theory, even though some graffiti, implying the presence of pilgrims, were found in the nearby church of *Sergios (see: E01806). The date and whereabouts of the placement of this sarcophagus are not clear. Perhaps it was originally kept in a martyr shrine inside the church, but was later removed and abandoned in the courtyard. Anyway, its purpose remains unknown.
As for the people responsible for the construction of the church, only the architect Kyros is attested by other inscriptions. He is probably Markianos Kyros who built at least four more churches in this region, see: Milson 2003 and SEG 53,1785, also: Prentice 1922, 131; IGLS 2, 293; Milburn 1989, 125-126; Loosley 2012, 36-37. It seems that Kyros became a presbyter at the last church he had constructed, or was a presbyter during his whole career, which made him aware of the liturgical prerequisites of ecclesiastical buildings. He was buried in the monastic church at Qasr El Banat.
Dating: the inscription is dated according to the era of Antioch (i.e. the Caesarian era). Its year 466 (the month of Loös) corresponds to AD 418.Bibliography
Edition:
Mouterde, R., Jalabert, L., Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 2: Chalcidique et Antiochène: nos 257-698 (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1939), no. 535.
Prentice, W.K. (ed.), Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-1905 and 1909, Division III: Greek and Latin Inscriptions, Section B: Northern Syria (Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1922), 121, no. 1076.
Butler, H.C. (ed.), Syria, Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-1905 and 1909, division II: Ancient Architecture in Syria, part B: North Syria (Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1920), 182, fig. 189.
Prentice, W.K. (ed.), Greek and Latin inscriptions (Publications of an American archaeological expedition to Syria in 1899-1900 3, New York: Century 1908), 76, no. 57.
Butler, H.C., Architecture and other Arts (Publications of an American Archæological Expedition to Syria in 1899–1900 2, New York: Century, 1903), 137-138.
de Ricci, S., "Inscriptions grecques et latines de Syrie copiées en 1700 ", Revue Archéologique (1907)/2, 284 and 289, no. 18.
Further reading:
Bavant, B., "II. Markianos Kyris, fondé de pouvoir de l'Église d'Antioche?", in: G. Charpentier, V. Puech (eds.). Villes et campagnes aux rives de la Méditerranée ancienne. Hommages à Georges Tate (Topoi, Suppl. 12, Lyon: Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, 2013), 36-43.
Delehaye, H., Les origines du culte des martyrs (Bruxelles : Société des Bollandistes, 1912), 224-226.
Halkin, F., "Inscriptions grecques relatives à l'hagiographie, II, Les deux Phénicies et et les deux Syries", Analecta Bollandiana 67 (1949), 100, note 4.
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), 684 (addendum).
Loosley, E., The architecture and liturgy of the bema in fourth- to-sixth-century Syrian churches (Boston: Brill, 2012), 216-220.
Milburn, R.L.P., Early Christian Art and Architecture (Aldershot: Wildwood House, 1989), 211.
Millar, F., A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief Under Theodosius II (408-450) (Berkeley, Calif.; London: University of California Press, 2006), 24 and figure IV.
Milson, D., "The Syrian technites Markianos Kyris († 425 C.E.)", Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 119 (2003), 159-182.
Peña, I., The Christian Art of Byzantine Syria ([England]: Garnet Publishing, 1997), 87.
Scheck, F.R., Odenthal, J., Syrien - Hochkulturen zwischen Mittelmeer und Arabischer Wüste (Köln: DuMont Reiseverlag, 1998), 302.
Tchalenko, G., Eglises de village de la Syrie du nord, vol. 2 (Paris: Librairie orientaliste P. Geuthner, 1980), 60-64.
Tchalenko, G., Eglises de village de la Syrie du nord, vol. 1 (Paris: Librairie orientaliste P. Geuthner, 1979), figs 299-312.
Trombley, F.R., Hellenic Religion and Christianization c. 370-529, vol. 2 (Leiden, New York, Cologne: Brill, 1994), 269.
For Butler's photographs from Dār Qīta, see: http://vrc.princeton.edu/archives/items/show/9287 and the following items.
For other photographs, see: Emma Loosley, “Dar Qita,” Architecture and Asceticism, accessed August 11, 2016, http://architectureandasceticism.exeter.ac.uk/items/show/226.
Reference works:
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 52, 1967; 53, 1785.
