200-201 (ed. pr.) | |
10, no. 18 | |
209-210, no. 18 | |
300 | |
613-614, no. 209, figs. 258 A-B |
SEG 43 (1993): 1061
CIIP I.2 (2012): 816 (ph., dr.)
Findspot: Engraved on a plaque of white marble, discovered in the vicinity of the Eudocian church of St. Stephen (on the site of the modern Dominican Convent of St. Étienne). The precise findspot of the slab is unknown.
Pres. loc.: Museum École Biblique, Jerusalem, inv. no. 2497/42-43.
A fragment of a plaque of white marble, of which only the left-hand part survives; the upper left corner is missing and about half of the text. The letters belong to the round alphabet. There are no abbreviations. Two dots are used as a word-divider.
Meas.: h 27, w 24.5 (max.), d 2.5 cm; letters 2-3 cm.
[Τά]δ᾽ὀστ[ᾶ τὰ τίμια]
[ἃ ἦ]γεν τό[δε ἡ σεμνὴ]
[Ε]ὐδοκία Σ[εβαστὴ]
4 τῶν ἐνδο[ξοτάτων
μαρτύρων [--]
Καλλινίκου [--]
Δομνίνου Τ[--]
8 Θέκλης κ[αὶ --]
☩ Αὐτοῖς ἁγί[οις δόξα.]
These precious bones which the venerable Eudocia Augusta brought here (are those) of the most glorious martyrs… Callinicus, …, Domninus, …, Thecla and … Glory be to these saints.
Edited text according to Lagrange; l.1 [--]δοστ[--] Thomsen; ll.2-3 [--] ἐντο[λῆς? τῆς? -- | Ε]ὐδοκίας Thomsen; l.7 perhaps Τ[ιμοθέου]; ll.8-9 Θεκλῆς κ(αὶ) [τῶν σὺν] | αὐτοῖς ἁγί[ῶν] Flusin.
List of relics deposited by Eudocia Augusta engraved on a marble slab, discovered in the vicinity of the church.
Since the deposition of relics under the altar was part of the ceremony of the consecration of a church, and St. Stephen’s relics were located in a separate place, it was necessary to depose other relics under the altar, and it is highly probable that this plaque was engraved shortly before 15 June 460. The martyrs whose relics were deposed cannot be identified with certainty, but most likely included Palestinian martyrs. All the names mentioned in the inscription appear in the Georgian calendar of the Jerusalem Church at the dates of their respective commemorations: Cal li ni cus, an unknown martyr from Gabala, together with a companion Meletius, on 19 December (Garitte, Calendrier 413; perhaps the name Μελετίου may have occupied the gap in l.5 or 6); Domninus on 5 November (ibid. 317: surely he is the Domninus martyred in Caesarea on November 5, 308: Eus., Mart. Pal. 7, 3f.); Thecla, possibly the Gazan martyr of the same persecution, on 19 and 21 June (Garitte, Calendrier 255, 256f.). The precise date of her martyrdom is not given by Eusebius, but she is mentioned with two fellow-martyrs of Gaza, Agapius and Timotheus (Mart. Pal. 3, 3f.; ed. Cureton 10). Thecla and Timotheus are commemorated together in Byzantine synaxaries: possibly the name Τ[ιμουέου] may be restored in l.7. According to Eusebius, Timotheus was burned in Gaza on an unspecified day; on the same day, Agapius and Thecla were condemned. They were to be thrown to the wild beasts in the theater of Caesarea. Agapius was in fact executed on 20 November 306, while the date and mode of Thecla’s execution are not related. See J. Patrich, SBF 52, 2002, 340-6. A Timotheus martyr is commemorated in the Georgian calendar on 14 March (Garitte, Calendrier 177) and may well be the Gazan martyr. The memory of an Agapius, called a saint, not a martyr, was celebrated on 5 February (ibid. 152): apparently he had nothing to do with the Gazan martyr and the latter was not commemorated in the calender of the Church of Jerusalem – a hint that the relics deposed by Eudocia did not include those of Thecla’s companion.