DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4680#0232
App. CHRISTIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 563
which the letters [AT]A and [mro] were engraved. Probably the date
in A contained one number, or perhaps two; the space is narrow for
a second letter and leaves no room for a third. The inscr. belongs to
the third century: em [r] to [tit] (a.d. 215-295) are the limits.
I am indebted to Prof. Mommsen for some of the readings : the plot
was 10 cubits square, and Aristeas furnished two workmen with two-
pronged picks and a corresponding force of diggers.
The principal inscr. on side A is continued on side B: ' Aristeas pur-
chased the ground, and promising . . . . , gave it on condition . . .'
Aristeas was a Chr., and we must understand that the Society to which
he left his bequest was a Chr. benefit and burial society (see no. 412).
As we see in Ch. XIV § 3 (1), Akmonia or more probably Keramon
Agora (to which, strictly, this inscr. belongs) was divided into trade-
guilds, which were probably local divisions (see Ch. XI § 22 (5)): the Chr.
Society was modelled after them in name and outward appearance, as at
Hierapolis. Similar titles were familiar to the pagans, e.g. ol Iv 'Efpeaia
epyarai irpoirvXelTai. CIGr 3028, &v\i] MeyaAoTruXstrdJi'at Side Lanckoronski
I no. 107. That ' neighbourhoods' should be united merely on account
of the contiguity of the people was also a familiar custom: cp. Josephus
Hell. Jucl. VII 10 TpeTTiTat ra ttXtjOti Ttpos (va>xiav, kol Kara (pvkas km ykvr\
kclI yeiTOvias ■noiovp.evoi ras eortacreis. An inscr. of Orkistos, still unpub-
lished, begins 01 irepl ttjv ynToviacnv (a remarkable form for yeirviaaiv)
rod \6pov (i.e. yJ>P0Vi eP- P- 3^)- And in Rome each Synagogue was
almost certainly named, as Mommsen points out (Ilistorische Zft. LXIV
pp. 426 f.), after the street in which it was situated, 'Aypnnrrio-LOL,
Kajxirr](noi, 2<,/3oupi;o-ioi, AvyovcrTr\o-ioi, &c. (compare the abode of Jews
outside the Porta Capena, Juvenal III 15).
The use of roses, which was very frequent among the pagans in
banquets and in ordinary life, was common to the Chr., as Tertullian
says x (Apolog. 42), except that the latter never made them into garlands
for their heads, but employed them loose: the Chr. used them also at
funerals (Minucius Felix Oclav. 38, 3). Especially it was customary to
hold a ceremony Rosalia on the anniversary of Saints and Martyrs,
Tomaschek ilber Brumalia unci Rosalia Sitzungsber. Wien. Akau. LX
p. 379 f, which I know only from Frankel Inschr. Perg. II p. 266, quotes
many examples. Prankel mentions the poSioyxo's of St. Timotheus Patr.
on May 9, and of St. John on May 8, also the Rosalia of St. Niko-
laos at Myra on May 9 (dies S. Nicolai aestivalis). Sepulchral use of
roses was also a custom among the pagans: at Nikaia a bequest to the
1 He speaks of flowers in general; Felix Ociav. 38, 3, it is clear that he
but from the imitation in Minucius refers specially to roses.
P 2
which the letters [AT]A and [mro] were engraved. Probably the date
in A contained one number, or perhaps two; the space is narrow for
a second letter and leaves no room for a third. The inscr. belongs to
the third century: em [r] to [tit] (a.d. 215-295) are the limits.
I am indebted to Prof. Mommsen for some of the readings : the plot
was 10 cubits square, and Aristeas furnished two workmen with two-
pronged picks and a corresponding force of diggers.
The principal inscr. on side A is continued on side B: ' Aristeas pur-
chased the ground, and promising . . . . , gave it on condition . . .'
Aristeas was a Chr., and we must understand that the Society to which
he left his bequest was a Chr. benefit and burial society (see no. 412).
As we see in Ch. XIV § 3 (1), Akmonia or more probably Keramon
Agora (to which, strictly, this inscr. belongs) was divided into trade-
guilds, which were probably local divisions (see Ch. XI § 22 (5)): the Chr.
Society was modelled after them in name and outward appearance, as at
Hierapolis. Similar titles were familiar to the pagans, e.g. ol Iv 'Efpeaia
epyarai irpoirvXelTai. CIGr 3028, &v\i] MeyaAoTruXstrdJi'at Side Lanckoronski
I no. 107. That ' neighbourhoods' should be united merely on account
of the contiguity of the people was also a familiar custom: cp. Josephus
Hell. Jucl. VII 10 TpeTTiTat ra ttXtjOti Ttpos (va>xiav, kol Kara (pvkas km ykvr\
kclI yeiTOvias ■noiovp.evoi ras eortacreis. An inscr. of Orkistos, still unpub-
lished, begins 01 irepl ttjv ynToviacnv (a remarkable form for yeirviaaiv)
rod \6pov (i.e. yJ>P0Vi eP- P- 3^)- And in Rome each Synagogue was
almost certainly named, as Mommsen points out (Ilistorische Zft. LXIV
pp. 426 f.), after the street in which it was situated, 'Aypnnrrio-LOL,
Kajxirr](noi, 2<,/3oupi;o-ioi, AvyovcrTr\o-ioi, &c. (compare the abode of Jews
outside the Porta Capena, Juvenal III 15).
The use of roses, which was very frequent among the pagans in
banquets and in ordinary life, was common to the Chr., as Tertullian
says x (Apolog. 42), except that the latter never made them into garlands
for their heads, but employed them loose: the Chr. used them also at
funerals (Minucius Felix Oclav. 38, 3). Especially it was customary to
hold a ceremony Rosalia on the anniversary of Saints and Martyrs,
Tomaschek ilber Brumalia unci Rosalia Sitzungsber. Wien. Akau. LX
p. 379 f, which I know only from Frankel Inschr. Perg. II p. 266, quotes
many examples. Prankel mentions the poSioyxo's of St. Timotheus Patr.
on May 9, and of St. John on May 8, also the Rosalia of St. Niko-
laos at Myra on May 9 (dies S. Nicolai aestivalis). Sepulchral use of
roses was also a custom among the pagans: at Nikaia a bequest to the
1 He speaks of flowers in general; Felix Ociav. 38, 3, it is clear that he
but from the imitation in Minucius refers specially to roses.
P 2