I, 147; III, ph. 155-157 | |
II, 210-211, nos. 1-2 | |
157-161 (in Hebrew), 20* (summary) (ed. pr.) | |
352-359 |
SEG 56 (2006): 1896
CIIP I.2 (2012): 785 (phs.)
Findspot: Reused in the Cosmatesque pavement in Apse 16 of the Anastasis, the southern apse of the rotunda.
Pres. loc.: (a) embedded in the wall above a window in the bell tower of the Holy Sepulchre; (b) embedded in the wall in the Chapel of Adam.
Three fragments of marble plaque, broken on all sides, recently embedded in walls in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Fragment (a) bears three lines of script and the remains of a fourth line, of which only the tips of the letters are preserved. Fragment (b) bears five lines of script; the upper half of the first line and the lower half of the fifth line are missing, but the letters can be recognized. Fragment (c) bears three lines and the bottom part of another on top. It was not located and is only known from a photo published by Corbo, but the shape of the letters is identical to those of fragments (a) and (b), and the remains of the letters on top fit the remains of l.4 of fragment (a). Therefore it is almost certain that it belonged to the same inscription. In all three fragments the characters are regularly and beautifully engraved, tall and narrow. The engraved surface is polished, except for fragment (c), which judging from the photo is very worn and no longer preserves the original polish. Horizontal (partly also vertical) guidelines are visible in all fragments. Oval narrow letters; lunate sigma and w-shaped omega.
Meas.: (a) h 31.3, w 25 cm; letters l.1: 7 cm, ll.2-3: 5.5-6 cm; (b) h 16, w 28.7 cm; letters 6 cm; (c) unknown.
Ἐν ὀνόματι τοῦ δεσπότου ἡμῶν Ἰ(ησο)ῦ] Χ(ριστο)ῦ τοῦ Θ(εο)ῦ ἡμῶ[ν]
αὐτοκράτωρ Καῖσαρ Φλ(άουιος) Ἰουστινιαν]ὸς Ἀλαμανικ(ὸς)
[Γ]οθικ(ὸς) Φ[ραγκικ(ὸς) Γερμανικ(ὸς) Ἀντικ(ὸς) Οὐ]ανδαλικ(ὸς) εὐσε[βὴς]
4 [νικ]ητὴς ἔν[δοξος τροπαιοῦχος ἀ]εισέβαστος [Αὔγ(ουστος).
[Ταῖς] ἁγιωτ(άταις) ἐκλ[(ησίας) τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίσ]τεως σπουδὴ ἡ [κε-]
[χρε]ωστημέ(νη) [προσενήνεκται, καὶ τοὺς ἀσυλία]ς ὅρους τοὺς ταῖς ΛΕΙ[ - - ]
[ - - ]ΑΝΕΡΩΝ[ - - τῷ πρ]ώτῳ μάρτυρι ὅ τε ΘΕ[ - - ]
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ our God, Imperator Caesar Flavius Iustinianus Augustus, Alamanicus, Gothicus, Francicus, Germanicus, Anticus, Vandalicus, pious, victorious, glorious, winner of trophies, forever Augustus. The due zeal was displayed towards the most holy churches of the orthodox faith, and the boundaries of asylia that … to the (church of) the First Martyr …
See Di Segni 2011.
Three fragments of a marble plaque bearing an imperial rescript of Justinian I.
Corbo rightly surmised that fragments (a) and (b) belong to one and the same inscription, because of the similarity of the letters. Though fragment (c) could not be autopsied, and we even lack its dimensions, it appears to join fragment (a). The three form part of a Justinianic inscription, most probably a rescript. Fragment (a) has part of ll.1-4, fragment (b) part of ll.3-7, fragment (c) part of ll.4-7. The first four lines contain the formal opening formula, with the invocation to Christ and the triumphal titulature of the emperor, which he acquired in 533 and which was used in official documents, including edicts on stone. The opening invocation to Christ also came into official use at the same time (D. Feissel, BCH 116, 1992, 393f.). The full set of eight triumphal epithets appears in CIG 8636 from Trebizond (the only case in which the official titulature appears not in an edict on stone but in a building inscription: see Feissel, ibid. 383-92 for a full treatment of this inscription, now lost) and in a half Greek, half Latin inscription from Miletus (M. Amelotti, in: id. - L. Migliardi Zingale, Le costituzioni giustinianee nelle epigrafi, 1985, 101-4 no. 3, 139 no. 20), while in IK Ephesos 1353 two epithets, Francicus and Anticus, are omitted. The surviving letters in our fragments enable us to restore the approximate length of the lines and to surmise that, in addition to the four triumphal epithets partly preserved, two more were included in l.3. In former editions it was suggested that the fragments belonged to an edict of theological content, such as the one Justinian addressed to all the churches on March 15, 533, laying down the orthodox creed against the heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches (see L. Perrone, La Chiesa di Palestina e le controversie cristologiche, 1980, 189f. The full text of this edict is preserved in the Justinian Code, CJ I,1,6, and in Chronicon Paschale, ed. Dindorf 630-3). The new reading proposed here, on the other hand, suggests that the edict dealt with asylia rights granted to a church (probably one dedicated to the Protomartyr, St. Stephen; if so, it was in all likelihood the Eudocian church and monastery north of the northern gate of the city, today’s Damascus Gate). More precisely, since asylia was considered a prerogative of all churches, the inscription would represent an imperial decision, in answer to a request of the church representatives, establishing the boundaries of its asylia, which may have included the monastery and other buildings attached to the church. If so, the inscription was probably displayed in St. Stephen itself, and the fragments made their way to the Holy Sepulchre – perhaps in the Crusader period – as valuable marble for secondary use. Some of the words restored in ll.5-7 echo formulas in other imperial grants of asylia. The asylia grant of the church of St. Zechariah at el-Bassa (Bezet: SEG 8, 18) opens with the words Ταῖς προσκυνηταῖς [ἁγιωτάτ(αις)] ἐκκλησίαις ἡ κ[εχρ]εωστημένη τιμὴ προσενήνεκται; the above-mentioned inscription from Ephesus (IK Ephesos 1353) begins [Πάσαις ταῖς ἐκκλη]σίαις τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως τὴν [δέουσαν πρ]οσήκει τιμὴν προσάγεσθαι, καὶ κατὰ τοῦ[το καὶ τῷ σ]εβασμίῳ οἴκῳ τοῦ ἀποστόλου [Ἰωάννου] etc. It is more difficult to restore the end of l.6 and the whole of l.7. The last preserved letter of l.6 may be a gamma or a iota: if the former, λεγ[ομ(έναις)] (abbreviated like the participle in l.6) comes to mind; if the latter, we might think of the adverb λίαν (spelled λείαν). Other words concerning the sacred, like λειτουργία, λείψανον, seem hardly worth considering in this context. The group of letters preserved at the beginning of l.7 strongly suggests a form (participle perfect?) of the verb φανερόω; but none of the possible combinations results in a coherent reconstruction of the missing text. At the end of l.7, ὅ τε θε- can lend itself to a number of possible restorations: θε[ῖος ἡμῶν τύπος], θε[οφιλέστατος ἐπίσκοπος?]. For the mention of the local bishop as responsible for the protection of the asylia right granted by the emperor, see for instance SEG 8, 18; D. Dain - G. Rouillard, Byzantion 5, 1929, 318.