Shiloh - Northern Church (Early)

Τεχνίτης is a general term for a skilled worker or artist, and it can hardly be doubted that Zosys the artist was the same man as Zosys the mosaic-layer who set up the inscription on the bema. Most likely ἠργασάμην does not mean that Zosys did the work with his own hands, but that he paid for it as an act of devotion, just as he dedicated the inscription on the bema. The mention of his name in both inscriptions and their similar motivation indicates that the two inscriptions are contemporary.

The strange word τὰ ζηλάρια is not found in any dictionary but is obviously a misspelling of σελλάρια, from the Latin sella, “seat” or “saddle.” The exchange of zeta for sigma is known. Sella appears in several variants in Greek: from the simple transcription σέλλα and the diminutive σελλίον to less common terms with the same meaning, known from papyri or from Byzantine glossaries. Σελλάριος, an adjective meaning “having a seat” or “having a saddle,” appears in Late Antique Greek; specifically, the term τὰ σελλάρια denotes a public privy (latrina), from the long benches that made this apartment serviceable. In fact, in spite of its late appearance in Greek, τὰ σελλάρια reproduces a term of classical Latin: sellaria (singular feminine noun), “a room furnished with seats.” In the present inscription, however, τὰ σελλάρια undoubtedly refers to the bench that skirts the western wall of the nave, just beside the inscription.