Evidence ID
E04572Saint Name
Paul, the Apostle : S00008
Gregory 'the Theologian', bishop of Nazianzos, ob. 390 : S00837Saint Name in Source
Παῦλος
ΓρηγόρηοςType of Evidence
Inscriptions - Inscribed architectural elementsEvidence not before
600Evidence not after
1300Activity not before
600Activity not after
1300Place of Evidence - Region
Asia MinorPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Antiochia of PisidiaPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Antiochia of Pisidia
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
NicomediaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Other lay individuals/ peopleSource
The inscriptions are on a stone water basin, made from a reused Roman altar. H. 0.85 m. The top and the shaft have roughly octagonal sections measuring respectively 0.84 m x 0.84 m and 0.68 m x 0.68 m. Letters of poor quality. Letter height c. 0.02-0.03 m. Inscription A is on top of the basin. Inscription B is on the front face of the shaft. Inscription C is on the left, and D on the right side of the shaft. Decorated with a relief of two winged beasts flanking a cross, of a Maltese cross, of a rosette, and of a Latin cross. Another carving shows a cross on top of a globe, beneath an arch, and one more Maltese cross.
The basin was first published by William Calder in 1912, from a copy by Prodromos, his Greek servant, taken in 1911. Calder notes that the basin was kept in the baths at Yalowadj (Υalvaç), and offers an incomplete edition (Inscriptions B and C). When revisited by Biagio Pace in 1914, the stone was still in the same location ('nel bagno del mercato [Bazár Hammám]'). Pace's edition offers approximate dimensions and complete transcriptions. The basin is now in the Υalvaç Museum. In 1998 it was republished with a photograph by Stephen Mitchell and Jean Öztürk, with the aid of Mehmet Taşlıalan. Taşlıalan notes that in spite of the earliest records by Calder, the basin is said to have been originally found at the so-called 'large basilica' at Pisidian Antioch (see below).Discussion
The basin could be a votive offering of a certain Demetrios, if the name is read correctly by Pace. Calder identified the basin as a baptismal font, and suggested that it came from a certain church of Paul the Apostle, built to commemorate Paul's visit to Antioch. He hypothetically dated the construction of that presumed church to the late 4th or 5th c.
Taşlıalan suggests that the basin gives the names of the patron saint (Paul) of the church which owned it, and that it was the large three-aisled basilica with a narthex and a forecourt, sited at the western edge of Antioch. This sanctuary was one of the largest churches in Anatolia, and is believed to have been almost certainly the seat of the metropolitan bishop of Antioch. Its nave and aisles were decorated with floor-mosaics. One of them mentions bishop Optimos, identified with a participant of the Council of Constantinople 381. Thus, the second half of the 4th c. is the presumed date of the foundation of the church (for a description, see Mitchell & Öztürk 1998, 210-217).
Mitchell and Öztürk only partly accept Taşlıalan's supposition. They acknowledge that the inscription proves that Paul's links with Antioch were remembered, and that he must have received some cult at the basilica, but they argue that the church was not necessarily dedicated to him.
Dating: Despite the apparently early date of the church, the basin is stylistically dated by Mitchell and Öztürk to the 7th or later centuries. Indeed, a later date is much more plausible, if the Gregory mentioned in Inscription D was Gregory of Nazianzus.Bibliography
Edition:
Öztürk, J., S. Mitchell, "Three churches at Antioch", in: S. Mitchell, M. Waelkens, Pisidian Antioch. The Site and Its Monuments (London: Duckworth, 1998), 215.
Pace, B., "Antiochia di Pisidia", Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente 3 (1916-1920) [1921], 55, no. 43. (54-60)
Calder, W.M., "Colonia Caesareia Antiocheia", The Journal of Roman Studies 2 (1912), 98, no. 29.
Reference works:
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 48, 1518, 1520.
