no. 1, fig. 7 (ed. pr.) |
In the mosaic pavement in the south-western corner of the small room flanking the baptistery on the south, perhaps belonging to the pavement of an earlier room.
Four-line mosaic inscription set within a rectangular frame (177 x 108 cm). The frame of the panel is formed of rows of tesserae: black, red, white, and again red and black. The left part of the frame is occupied by a decoration of geometric motifs in the same colours, and the bottom part by two ivy leaves, one black, the other red. The characters, 9-11 cm high, are formed of black tesserae; the text opens with a cross and ends with a sprig in the same colour; another sprig, this one red, adorns the end of the second line. The abbreviation of the nomen sacrum is marked with an horizontal stroke. The shape of the letters suggests a dating in the second half of the fourth century or at the beginning of the fifth at the latest. Especially characteristic of the earlier period is the form of the mu with a low, almost horizontal bar. The last but one letter in line 1 has an odd shape, but can only be a misshapen omicron, half round and half square (both shapes common in this period), for the quotation and the available space permit nothing else.
☩ Τ[ὰ σὰ σ]ο̣ὶ
προσφέ- ❦
ρομεν εὐχαριστοῦν-
4 τες Κ(ύρι)ε. ❦
Thy own things we offer thee in thanksgiving, O Lord.
Four-line paraphrase of I Chronicles within a rectangular frame, in the corner of the mosaic pavement of the small room flanking the baptistery on the south.
This sentence is a paraphrase of I Chron. 29:14 (‘All things come from thee, and of thy own have we given thee’); it was included in the eucharistic liturgy in the liturgies of St. Basilius and St. John Chrysostom. It is often found in inscriptions throughout the East in different abbreviated versions.