Evidence ID
E02235Saint Name
Sergios, martyr in Syria, ob. 303-311 : S00023
Bakchos, martyr in Barbalissos (Syria), ob. c. 303-311 : S00079Saint Name in Source
Σαίργηος, Σάργηος
ΒάχχοςImage Caption 1
Drawing by Bankes. From: IGLS 13/2, 9.Image Caption 2
Majuscule edition by Waddington. From: LBW, 472.Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)Evidence not before
512Evidence not after
600Activity not before
512Activity not after
600Place of Evidence - Region
ArabiaPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
BosraPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Bosra
Sakkaia / Maximianopolis
Σακκαια
Sakkaia
Saccaea
Eaccaea
Maximianopolis
Shaqqa
Schaqqa
ShakkaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Source
Probably a stone lintel, decorated with a carving of a Χ-shaped cross or flower in the middle of the inscribed face. There is no published description. Now lost.
The inscription was first recorded by William John Bankes, during his journeys in the Mediterranean between 1815 and 1820 (for his work in the Near East, see the comments in E02194). Bankes made a drawing but this remained unpublished until 2011, when it was included in the second part of the thirteenth volume of Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie by Maurice Sartre and Annie Sartre-Fauriat.
The stone was also seen in the 1860s by William Waddington, over a doorway of the cathedral church in Bostra. Waddington offers a slightly different transcription to that by Bankes and, sadly, says nothing about the shape of the slab. Maurice Sartre was unable to locate the stone during his surveys of Bostra in the 1970s.Discussion
The inscription almost certainly refers to the cathedral of Bostra, dedicated to two famous martyred soldiers: Sergios (venerated in Rusafa) and Bakchos (venerated in Barbalissos). For the full building inscription of this church, mentioning Sergios and Bakchos together with *Leontios (probably the martyr of Tripolis in Lebanon), see E02234.
Dating: as the cathedral church of Bostra, where the inscription was found, was constructed in 512/513, our text is likely to date from the early 6th c.Bibliography
Edition:
Sartre, M. (ed.), Les inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 13/1: Bostra: nos. 9001 à 9472 (BAH 13, Paris: Librairie orientaliste P. Geuthner, 1982), no. 9042.
Waddington, W.H., Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie (Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, Libraires-Éditeurs, 1870), no. 1921.
Further reading:
Sartre-Fauriat, A., "Georges, Serge, Élie et quelques autres saints connus et inédits de la province d'Arabie", in: Fr. Prévot (ed.), Romanité et cité chrétienne. Permances et mutations. Intégration et exclusion du Ier au VIe siècle. Mélanges en l'honneur d'Yvette Duval (Paris: De Boccard, 2000), 303, note 59.
Sartre, M., Sartre-Fauriat, A. (eds.), Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, vol. 13/2: Bostra (Supplément) et la plaine de la Nuqrah (BAH 194, Beirut: Institut français du Proche-Orient, 2011), 9 (supplement).
Reference works:
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 61, 1480.
