Church/Monastery name:
Heptapegon - The Miracle of the Multiplying of Loaves and Fishes 2- Basilica.
Inscription number:
1
Selected bibliography:
53-54, figs. 2 and 10 (phs.) (ed. pr.) | |
54-55 | |
359-360, no. 90 | |
146, no. 216 |
Epigraphical corpora:
SEG 8 (1937): 5; 49 (1999): 2061
Inscription type:
commemorative
Location:
In the mosaic pavement in the apse in front of the altar.
Physical description :
Fragmentary mosaic inscription, of which 4 out of 5 lines survive, within a rectangular frame. Square script, drop-shaped omicron, and omega. Ligatures of ΝΗ, ΟΥ, ΗΜ. Diagonal strokes and stigma for abbreviation. Begins with a cross
Text:
☩ Ὑπὲρ μνήμης [καὶ]
ἀναπαύσεω[ς]
τοῦ πρ(οσ)ενένκα[ν(τος)]
τ(οῦ) ὁσ(ίου/ιοτάτου) πατρ(ὸς) ἡμ[ῶν]
Τ[--]
Translation:
For the memory and repose of the donor, our saintly father T...
Apparatus:
L.3-4 πρ(οσ)ενένκα[ν|τ(ος) Schneider, SEG; L.4-5 ὁσ(ιοτάτου) πατρ(ιάρχου) Μ[αρ]|τ[υρίου. Ἕτους --] Schneider (1934), SEG.
Date:
Second half of the 6th cent.
Summary:
Fragmentary commemorative mosaic inscription of a donor, in the apsis in front of the altar.
Epigraphical Abbreviations:
ΝΗ, ΟΥ, ΗΜ in ligatures, diagonal strokes, stigma
Schneider read the last letters in l.4, a ligature of eta and mu, as a simple mu, which enabled him to read the name of Patriarch Martyrius and date the restoration to the years of his patriarchate, 478-486. However, the restoration was in fact paid for by "our saintly father," who may have been a hegumen of a monastery near the church, an unknown bishop of Tiberias, or even a simple priest. The inscription is dated on paleographic grounds to the second half of the 6th century; it was inserted into an earlier, 5th century mosaic.