Ramsay, William Mitchell: The cities and bishoprics of Phrygia: being an essay of the local history of Phrygia from the earliest time to the Turkish conquest (Band 1,2): West and West-Central Phrygia (Oxford, 1897)

500 XII. CHRISTIAN INSCRIPTIONS OF S.W. PHRYGIA.

to suppose that the Chr. buried in concealed graves until about 220,
and then altered their custom and buried openly1. Much more
probable is it that in the older epitaphs the Chr. character was even
more completely suppressed ; and thus they escape our notice. That
is the case with no. 657, at Hieropolis, whose Chr. origin and second
century date are practically certain : yet Dr. Ficker and others have
demonstrated in a very ingenious way that there is no single phrase
or word in the inscr. which might not conceivably be used by a pagan2.
That example may be studied as a specimen of the way in which the
deepest facts of Chr. faith might be expressed publicly, in language
that would not offend pagan feeling, on a monument that stood plain
before the eyes of the world as a witness to the faith.

Probably, as the use of names by the early Chr. in Asia Minor
becomes more familiar to us through the discovery of more monu-
ments, it will be possible to identify some of the earlier Eumenian
Chr. epitaphs. In the mean time, however, we must be content to
remain in ignorance; but the suspicion haunts me that many, which
probably belong to the second century, are Chr.3 Such epitaphs as
no. 243 or 235, in which the statement "of any penalty is carefully
avoided (even at the expense of grammar in no. 235), suggests that
before the Chr. formula was struck out, the Chr. sometimes contented
themselves with mere omission of pagan elements.

In Hierapolis there occur two inscr. no. 411 f, in which the Chr.
tone may probably be detected at an earlier date than in Eumeneia.
If we rightly interpret them, one important fact results : the Hiera-
politan Chr., late in the second century, still took shelter behind the
permission accorded to the Jewish religion. These inscr. mention
three feasts: two of them bear Jewish titles, while the third is concealed
beneath an obscure name. The significance of this fact becomes
apparent when the situation of the Chr. in Phrygia is considered :
what they aimed at was legality in outward appearance more than

1 No change in their relation to the scholars of the perception of the details
pagans and the government occurred blurring the conception of the whole,
about that time to make such altera- The progress of discovery will soon
tion in their customs probable : more- make it unnecessary to argue against
over in surrounding cities open sepul- this ingenious fantasy. But if German
ture was practised by the Chr., no. 411 f, theologians are deceived, pagans of the
656. year 200 might be so also. See no. 657.

2 Their arguments make it unneces- 3 See the list p. 532. For example
sary to press the point here. But when in no. 265, of four names, two belong
they go on to argue that therefore the to Eumenian martyrs, Neon and Gaios,
inscr. is not Chr., we can only regard and the others are Teimotheos and
this as an extreme example among Theophila.