DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4680#0218
App. CHRISTIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 549
Rome (Kaibel 1093, see Addenda io); the expression occurs iropiuas fitov
ex Kay.aTu>v Ihicov: that inscription bears many signs of being- an elegiac
composition rudely adapted by Miletos to his own purposes with unme-
trical alterations in names and circumstances. As Tripolis was near
Hierapolis, the model which Miletos imitated may have been locally
common and familiar also to Diodoros.
The existence of so many subtle differences amid the resemblances to
common phraseology is enough to suggest Chr. origin (as is stated on
p. 119); but until no. 411 became known to me, I did not venture to
class no. 412 definitively among the Chr. inscr. Now, however, the
religion seems beyond doubt. It then becomes almost certain that
Porphyrabaphoi denotes a Chr. society, for a Chr. would not leave his
bequest to a pagan society1 for the performance of pagan rites. When
we compare no. 389 and 455, we must infer that already in the early
third century the Phrygian Christians in each city were formed into
a society, which assumed some public and exoteric name of a neutral
character, likely to be accepted as a legal designation. This implies
that they took advantage of the permission given by the Roman laws
to poor persons to form benefit-societies [collegia tenuiorum). Such
societies had to be registered in order to be exempted from the general
prohibition against forming collegia and sodalitates; they must have
a chief officer, who represented the society before the state and the law2.
It was important to choose a name that would readily pass muster along
with others; and in Hierapolis, where the Dyers were a great trade,
Porphyrabapheis or Porphyrabaphoi was a suitable name 3. Kairodapistai,
which is probably connected with bams a carpet, was also a suitable name :
the making of carpets has probably always been practised in Phrygia
(as it still is). See no. 455.
It would be important to fix the date of no. 411 and 41a. The earliest
date for no. 412 is a.d. 190-200, for a person named M. Aurelius could
hardly be born earlier than the reign of M. Aurelius; and the style
suggests a date from 200 to 250 a.d. No. 411, with the name P. Aelius,
suits better the early part of that period. Probably a.d. 190-220 is
about the period in which both inscr. were engraved.
The careful attention to legal form, which is observable in all the
1 Ancient societies of all kinds, even On coll. tenuiorum or funeraticia (burial
trades, united in the religion of some being the commonest purpose of the
patron and guardian deity. societies) see Digest 47, 22 and CIL XIV
2 See Le Blant Suppl. aux Actes de 2112.
Mart. pp. 282, 288, De Rossi Roma Soft. 3 The name, if Chr., must have had
II p. 82, Hatch Hampton Led. p. 152, a double sense, exoterically 'purple-
Ramsay Church in B. E. pp. 359, 430 ft'. dippers,' esoterically ' dipped in blood.'
Rome (Kaibel 1093, see Addenda io); the expression occurs iropiuas fitov
ex Kay.aTu>v Ihicov: that inscription bears many signs of being- an elegiac
composition rudely adapted by Miletos to his own purposes with unme-
trical alterations in names and circumstances. As Tripolis was near
Hierapolis, the model which Miletos imitated may have been locally
common and familiar also to Diodoros.
The existence of so many subtle differences amid the resemblances to
common phraseology is enough to suggest Chr. origin (as is stated on
p. 119); but until no. 411 became known to me, I did not venture to
class no. 412 definitively among the Chr. inscr. Now, however, the
religion seems beyond doubt. It then becomes almost certain that
Porphyrabaphoi denotes a Chr. society, for a Chr. would not leave his
bequest to a pagan society1 for the performance of pagan rites. When
we compare no. 389 and 455, we must infer that already in the early
third century the Phrygian Christians in each city were formed into
a society, which assumed some public and exoteric name of a neutral
character, likely to be accepted as a legal designation. This implies
that they took advantage of the permission given by the Roman laws
to poor persons to form benefit-societies [collegia tenuiorum). Such
societies had to be registered in order to be exempted from the general
prohibition against forming collegia and sodalitates; they must have
a chief officer, who represented the society before the state and the law2.
It was important to choose a name that would readily pass muster along
with others; and in Hierapolis, where the Dyers were a great trade,
Porphyrabapheis or Porphyrabaphoi was a suitable name 3. Kairodapistai,
which is probably connected with bams a carpet, was also a suitable name :
the making of carpets has probably always been practised in Phrygia
(as it still is). See no. 455.
It would be important to fix the date of no. 411 and 41a. The earliest
date for no. 412 is a.d. 190-200, for a person named M. Aurelius could
hardly be born earlier than the reign of M. Aurelius; and the style
suggests a date from 200 to 250 a.d. No. 411, with the name P. Aelius,
suits better the early part of that period. Probably a.d. 190-220 is
about the period in which both inscr. were engraved.
The careful attention to legal form, which is observable in all the
1 Ancient societies of all kinds, even On coll. tenuiorum or funeraticia (burial
trades, united in the religion of some being the commonest purpose of the
patron and guardian deity. societies) see Digest 47, 22 and CIL XIV
2 See Le Blant Suppl. aux Actes de 2112.
Mart. pp. 282, 288, De Rossi Roma Soft. 3 The name, if Chr., must have had
II p. 82, Hatch Hampton Led. p. 152, a double sense, exoterically 'purple-
Ramsay Church in B. E. pp. 359, 430 ft'. dippers,' esoterically ' dipped in blood.'