209-210, pl. 24 B (ph.) (ed. pr.) | |
469, no. 626 | |
71, no. 100, pl. LXXXIII (ph.) | |
64, no. 6 | |
208-209, p. 34, fig. 41 (ph.) | |
308-310, no. 5, fig. 6 (ph.) |
Findspot: In the mosaic pavement at the centre of the nave.
Pres. loc.: In situ, hidden under a layer of sand.
Six-line mosaic inscription within a rectangular frame. The frame and the script are traced in black tesserae. The letters belong to the round alphabet, except for the omega, shaped like an inverted M; theta and omicron alternate round and narrow, almond-shaped forms. Abbreviations are marked with a stigma. Interestingly, in three cases the abbreviated word is unusually truncated after a vowel: θεοφι(λεστάτου) rather than the common θεοφιλ(εστάτου), ἀρχιεπι(σκόπου) rather than ἀρχιεπισκ(όπου), περιοδε(υτῶν) rather than περιοδ(ευτῶν). The top and the left side of the inscription are slightly broken, but the text can be easily restored.
[Ἐ]πὶ τοῦ ἁγιωτ[άτο]υ κὲ θεοφι(λεστάτου) ἀρχι-
[ε]πι(σκόπου) ἡμῶν Λονγίνου κὲ τοῦ θεοσε-
[β(εστάτου)] χωροεπ(ισκόπου) Πολυχρονίου κὲ τῶν ε-
4 [ὐλ]αβ(εστάτων) περιοδε(υτῶν) Γαειανοῦ κὲ Δω-
ροθέου καὶ Βάσσου ἐτελιώθη ἡ ψήφ-
(ωσις) ἐμμη(νὶ) Δύστρου λ′ τοῦ γχ′ ἔτους.
In the time of our most holy and God-loving archbishop Longinus and of the most God-fearing country bishop Polychronius and the most pious visitors Gaianus, Dorotheus and Bassus, the mosaic was completed, on the 30 of the month Dystros of the year 603.
L.6 ΕΜΜΗ[νί] contraption of ἐν μη(νί).
Dated mosaic building inscription of archbishop Longinus and other clergymen, at the centre of the nave, 16 April 478.
The date is reckoned according to the era of Tyre, 126 BC, and year 603 therefore corresponds to 477/8 AD. In the calendar of Tyre Dystros began on 18 March: the exact date is thus 16 April 478, which that year was the first Sunday after Easter. Longinus, archbishop of Tyre, is only known from this inscription. Four other members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the diocese are mentioned after him. The first is the chorepiscopus (country bishop) Polychronius. The role of the chorepiscopus in the supervision of communities in the countryside is well known, and it is not unusual to find his name in building inscriptions of rural churches, sometimes together with the name of a periodeutes (visitor). All occurrences of the term chorepiscopus in our region are from large dioceses, where the bishop would have felt the need of one and sometimes more clergymen to help in the care of the churches scattered in the territory of his city. The role of the periodeutes is less clear: see full discussion in Di Segni–Ashkenazi.