DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45616#0015
Dar Kita
127
Much of the second line of this inscription and the figures of the indiction number
are very uncertain. The figures of the date are also very doubtful: the first looks
more like r than like E, the second might equally well be Λ or o; but if the indiction
number, 15, is correct, this will suffice to determine the year within the reign of the
emperor mentioned. I believe that I LI A N N H can be only a dative, and, in that case,
must be in a different construction from the names that follow. The words which
precede are very perplexing; but I think it possible to read ύπ(σ) τώ εύλογ(ητώ), although
this use of ύπσ with a dative is uncommon. The following reading was proposed
with much hesitation in the earlier publication, and I have been unable to improve
upon it.
+ Άνηνεσθη η πύλη επί τού
πα(τρίάρχου) Αναστασίου, ύπ(ο) τώ
τ(ού) εεχζ έτ(ους), ίνό1. ιεζ.
εύσεβίεστατου) ημ(ώ)ν βασΑ(εως) Ιουστίνου, (καί) τού αγιοτα’(του)
εύλογ(ητω) ’Ιωάννη, Σεργίου, Δανού, Βαχχου, Ραμλυς πρ(εσβυτε'ρων),
This doorway was renewed tinder our most pious king Iustinos, and the most holy
patriarch Anastasios, by (direction of) the honored Ioannes, Sergios, Danos, Bachchos,
Ramlys being presbyters, in the 615th year, indiction 15. (566—7 a.d.).
Justin II became emperor in November 565, and reigned until 578 a.d. Anastasios,
called Sinaitikos, was made patriarch of Antioch about 559: he was banished by Justin
in 570 a.d. Ioannes seems to have held some office intermediate between the patriarch
and the presbyters: probably he was the periodeutes. Of the four other names two,
at least, together with Ioannes, appear in a Syriac inscription dated nineteen years
earlier than this one, and found at Babiska, a town about an English mile distant from
Dar Kita. In this case also Ioannes is distinguished from the rest. The Babiska in-
scription is published in A.A.B.S. iv, Syr. 15 (p. 33 ff.), and is translated by Dr.
Littmann as follows: “In my days the brothers Sargon and Theodore and Bakkhos
purchased the gardens, + and I, the brother Yoljanna, son of Zakkai, built and
finished? Another panel of the same stone bears Inscription Syr. 14, which describes
the building as a “stood and gives the date: “God [bless us! There was built]
this stoa in the year five hundred and ninety and six according to the era of
Antioch? Now Sargon or Sergon is the Syriac hypochoristikon of Sergios, Yohanna
is the Syriac form of Ioannes. It is possible then that some of the persons men-
tioned in the two places are the same. But the relation of Ioannes to the others,
the character of the stoa at Babiska, and the meaning of the term brothers, are
not entirely clear.
1089. A lintel on its jambs, facing south, about 50 yards north of the Sergius
Church, and at the east side of Group xviii on the map. The bottom of the lintel
is about 3 feet above the present ground level. The building to which it belonged
has disappeared.
The lintel is 2.03 m. long and 53 cm. high. In the center is a trapezoidal door-
cap, 1.03 m. long at the top, 95 cm. at the bottom, and 35 cm. high. On the trapezoid
are three disks:
there is also a small disk at each side. The first line of the in-
scription is above the trapezoid, the second and third at the right of the trapezoid,
and the fourth is below the trapezoid. The letters are incised, and are 4 to 5 cm. high.
Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expedition to Syria, Div. Ill, Sec. B. Pt. 4. 17
127
Much of the second line of this inscription and the figures of the indiction number
are very uncertain. The figures of the date are also very doubtful: the first looks
more like r than like E, the second might equally well be Λ or o; but if the indiction
number, 15, is correct, this will suffice to determine the year within the reign of the
emperor mentioned. I believe that I LI A N N H can be only a dative, and, in that case,
must be in a different construction from the names that follow. The words which
precede are very perplexing; but I think it possible to read ύπ(σ) τώ εύλογ(ητώ), although
this use of ύπσ with a dative is uncommon. The following reading was proposed
with much hesitation in the earlier publication, and I have been unable to improve
upon it.
+ Άνηνεσθη η πύλη επί τού
πα(τρίάρχου) Αναστασίου, ύπ(ο) τώ
τ(ού) εεχζ έτ(ους), ίνό1. ιεζ.
εύσεβίεστατου) ημ(ώ)ν βασΑ(εως) Ιουστίνου, (καί) τού αγιοτα’(του)
εύλογ(ητω) ’Ιωάννη, Σεργίου, Δανού, Βαχχου, Ραμλυς πρ(εσβυτε'ρων),
This doorway was renewed tinder our most pious king Iustinos, and the most holy
patriarch Anastasios, by (direction of) the honored Ioannes, Sergios, Danos, Bachchos,
Ramlys being presbyters, in the 615th year, indiction 15. (566—7 a.d.).
Justin II became emperor in November 565, and reigned until 578 a.d. Anastasios,
called Sinaitikos, was made patriarch of Antioch about 559: he was banished by Justin
in 570 a.d. Ioannes seems to have held some office intermediate between the patriarch
and the presbyters: probably he was the periodeutes. Of the four other names two,
at least, together with Ioannes, appear in a Syriac inscription dated nineteen years
earlier than this one, and found at Babiska, a town about an English mile distant from
Dar Kita. In this case also Ioannes is distinguished from the rest. The Babiska in-
scription is published in A.A.B.S. iv, Syr. 15 (p. 33 ff.), and is translated by Dr.
Littmann as follows: “In my days the brothers Sargon and Theodore and Bakkhos
purchased the gardens, + and I, the brother Yoljanna, son of Zakkai, built and
finished? Another panel of the same stone bears Inscription Syr. 14, which describes
the building as a “stood and gives the date: “God [bless us! There was built]
this stoa in the year five hundred and ninety and six according to the era of
Antioch? Now Sargon or Sergon is the Syriac hypochoristikon of Sergios, Yohanna
is the Syriac form of Ioannes. It is possible then that some of the persons men-
tioned in the two places are the same. But the relation of Ioannes to the others,
the character of the stoa at Babiska, and the meaning of the term brothers, are
not entirely clear.
1089. A lintel on its jambs, facing south, about 50 yards north of the Sergius
Church, and at the east side of Group xviii on the map. The bottom of the lintel
is about 3 feet above the present ground level. The building to which it belonged
has disappeared.
The lintel is 2.03 m. long and 53 cm. high. In the center is a trapezoidal door-
cap, 1.03 m. long at the top, 95 cm. at the bottom, and 35 cm. high. On the trapezoid
are three disks:
there is also a small disk at each side. The first line of the in-
scription is above the trapezoid, the second and third at the right of the trapezoid,
and the fourth is below the trapezoid. The letters are incised, and are 4 to 5 cm. high.
Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expedition to Syria, Div. Ill, Sec. B. Pt. 4. 17