DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4377#0145
NECROPOLIS OX THE EAST. 475
short sepulchral columns, xibysg,, had stood. In
these the words b Aa.ij.og usually commence the in-
scription, and the deceased person is. generally styled
"Hpcog.
This form, probably, distinguishes the graves of
persons who had rendered some service to the com-
munity, in consideration for which they were
thought worthy of a funeral or a monument at the
public expense.
The title of "Hpeog in later Greek Avas very gene-
rally bestowed on the dead, and seems to have been
the equivalent of the expression b jttaxap/rvjj.
With perhaps one exception, all the inscriptions
which I found in this church arc of the lloman
period.
Most of them probably belong to the second and
third centuries A.D.
They are chiefly interesting as specimens of palaeo-
graphy, and as affording a clue to the age of the
tombs in the eastern cemetery. Many of the stela;
are in very fine condition.
The following may be particularly noticed :—
(1.) A sepulchral inscription in elegiac verse
(Plate XCIV. No. 54), to the memory of a female
called Atthis ; her husband is the dedicator.
It is graven on a slab 25^-" by 25", by k\" thick-
ness. On the edge of the slab is an inscription in
two lines, containing the name of a certain Meliton,
son of Dexikrates, a citizen of Antioch, who resided
as a [xiroixog at Cnidus.
This inscription is placed in a direction contrary
to that of the metrical epitaph, and appears to be
2 i 2
short sepulchral columns, xibysg,, had stood. In
these the words b Aa.ij.og usually commence the in-
scription, and the deceased person is. generally styled
"Hpcog.
This form, probably, distinguishes the graves of
persons who had rendered some service to the com-
munity, in consideration for which they were
thought worthy of a funeral or a monument at the
public expense.
The title of "Hpeog in later Greek Avas very gene-
rally bestowed on the dead, and seems to have been
the equivalent of the expression b jttaxap/rvjj.
With perhaps one exception, all the inscriptions
which I found in this church arc of the lloman
period.
Most of them probably belong to the second and
third centuries A.D.
They are chiefly interesting as specimens of palaeo-
graphy, and as affording a clue to the age of the
tombs in the eastern cemetery. Many of the stela;
are in very fine condition.
The following may be particularly noticed :—
(1.) A sepulchral inscription in elegiac verse
(Plate XCIV. No. 54), to the memory of a female
called Atthis ; her husband is the dedicator.
It is graven on a slab 25^-" by 25", by k\" thick-
ness. On the edge of the slab is an inscription in
two lines, containing the name of a certain Meliton,
son of Dexikrates, a citizen of Antioch, who resided
as a [xiroixog at Cnidus.
This inscription is placed in a direction contrary
to that of the metrical epitaph, and appears to be
2 i 2