DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4680#0185
516 XII. CHRISTIAN INSCRIPTIONS OF S.W. PHRYGIA.
example is sufficient to suggest that this, like every other Chr. formula of
the earliest period, was a pagan form Christianized by a slight change.
In this case the change was not one to rouse any suspicion. The expres-
sion ' the god' was familiar to the pagans, and frequently used by them
to designate the local patron deity; and it was a very slight change to
substitute for the pagan appeal to a definite deity (Men, Helios, Selene,
Leto &c), or to the Katachthonian gods or to the dead themselves, the
reference in general terms to ' the God/ which could be taken by every
one in his own sense.
The period when this formula was introduced is indicated as the first
half of the third century by certain dated inscr., no. 365 a.d. 263-264,
no. 372 a.d. 249, no. 385 a.d. 253-254, no. 388 a.d. 259, no. 375 a.d.
260, no. 448 a.d. 253, no. 449 a.d. 2561, and by the following whose
date about 220-260 is made probable by other characteristics: no. 370
about a.d. 224, no. 371 about A.D. 270 (formula developed), 392 0. 250.
Moreover the general style of this group of inscr. marks them as third
century documents 2. We conclude from this that the abbreviated form
was in full use a. d. 240-260, that about 270 some modifications to give
a more pronounced Chr. turn to the formula were being tried, and that
the more elaborate and developed variations like 7rpos rty biKaioavvriv
rod 9eov are likely to be later than 240. We might conjecture that those
inscr. in which a double penalty, civil and religious, is threatened belong
to the earlier period a.d. 200-250; but the only dated example, no. 385,
which is of Apameia, belongs to 253.
I have not seen this stone, but it is doubtless engraved on a tombstone
in the form of an altar, like almost every Chr. inscr. at Eumeneia that
I have seen 3. ' The customary method of sepulture was kept up by the
Chr.: in the first place it would appear that there was no violent break
in Phrygia between them and the pagans : secondly, it was an object
with most Chr. to avoid drawing special attention to themselves, and to
observe the formalities which would give them legal rights in their city.
In this connexion it is interesting to find in this inscr. the tags of
semi-philosophic verse that follow the formula of curse. In the gnomai
quoted from Menander two of them occur in slightly different form
(koKov 70 yqpav Kal to pvr\ yqpav ttclXlv 283, and xaAoy to OviJo-kciv oh vfipiv
1 In no. 445 the expression earai eVt- I formerly felt (so also M. Cumont 145
Kardparos napa dea Is rhv iavav is dated bis) of dating it later than the Not.
a.d. 250-251. Dign. c. a.d. 412.
2 Only no. 373 looks like a fourth 3 No. 380 is on a stele of form rarer
century inscr.: the explanation given at Eumeneia, with a pedimental top.
in the comm. avoids the necessity which See p. 367 note 1.
example is sufficient to suggest that this, like every other Chr. formula of
the earliest period, was a pagan form Christianized by a slight change.
In this case the change was not one to rouse any suspicion. The expres-
sion ' the god' was familiar to the pagans, and frequently used by them
to designate the local patron deity; and it was a very slight change to
substitute for the pagan appeal to a definite deity (Men, Helios, Selene,
Leto &c), or to the Katachthonian gods or to the dead themselves, the
reference in general terms to ' the God/ which could be taken by every
one in his own sense.
The period when this formula was introduced is indicated as the first
half of the third century by certain dated inscr., no. 365 a.d. 263-264,
no. 372 a.d. 249, no. 385 a.d. 253-254, no. 388 a.d. 259, no. 375 a.d.
260, no. 448 a.d. 253, no. 449 a.d. 2561, and by the following whose
date about 220-260 is made probable by other characteristics: no. 370
about a.d. 224, no. 371 about A.D. 270 (formula developed), 392 0. 250.
Moreover the general style of this group of inscr. marks them as third
century documents 2. We conclude from this that the abbreviated form
was in full use a. d. 240-260, that about 270 some modifications to give
a more pronounced Chr. turn to the formula were being tried, and that
the more elaborate and developed variations like 7rpos rty biKaioavvriv
rod 9eov are likely to be later than 240. We might conjecture that those
inscr. in which a double penalty, civil and religious, is threatened belong
to the earlier period a.d. 200-250; but the only dated example, no. 385,
which is of Apameia, belongs to 253.
I have not seen this stone, but it is doubtless engraved on a tombstone
in the form of an altar, like almost every Chr. inscr. at Eumeneia that
I have seen 3. ' The customary method of sepulture was kept up by the
Chr.: in the first place it would appear that there was no violent break
in Phrygia between them and the pagans : secondly, it was an object
with most Chr. to avoid drawing special attention to themselves, and to
observe the formalities which would give them legal rights in their city.
In this connexion it is interesting to find in this inscr. the tags of
semi-philosophic verse that follow the formula of curse. In the gnomai
quoted from Menander two of them occur in slightly different form
(koKov 70 yqpav Kal to pvr\ yqpav ttclXlv 283, and xaAoy to OviJo-kciv oh vfipiv
1 In no. 445 the expression earai eVt- I formerly felt (so also M. Cumont 145
Kardparos napa dea Is rhv iavav is dated bis) of dating it later than the Not.
a.d. 250-251. Dign. c. a.d. 412.
2 Only no. 373 looks like a fourth 3 No. 380 is on a stele of form rarer
century inscr.: the explanation given at Eumeneia, with a pedimental top.
in the comm. avoids the necessity which See p. 367 note 1.