Description of Monument

White marble block, broken to right (0.61 × 0.25 × 0.29).

Description of Text

Inscribed on the face.

Letters

0.015-0.04; rough and poorly aligned

Date

Possibly third century A.D. (lettering)

Edition Πολυχρόνιος ὁ τῆς ειεριασ γανβρὸς εὐξά τῷ θεῷ εἰς τὸ ἁγίασμα τοῦ το Φλάουιος Ἔρως ἐποίηα

Apparatus

l. 1, ὁ τῆς ἀρχειερίας Cormack

l.2, the stone has ΕΥΣ; Cormack reported an upright after this, but A seems clear. Otherwise εὐσεβως would be an attractive restoration

l. 3, ἁγίασμα Cormack, but there is room for 3-4 letters thereafter, and something more seems necessary to make sense of TO in l. 4

Translation

Polychronios the brother-in-law of the feminine of the priestess, having made a vow to the god with a view to the sanctification of Flavius ?Eros I made this.

Commentary

Polychronios is a name which appears in the Jewish inscription, but also in pagan and Christian contexts at Aphrodisias. The case for thinking the text may be Jewish rests on the word agiasma which is found in Christian and Jewish contects with the sense of holy place (church, synagogue, temple, shrine); but priestess would be odd in either (for its use in a Jewish context 1007, p. 158).

Locations

Unknown Necropolis, West: in a field 1 km west of the West gate.Findspot (1934)

Text Constituted From

Preliminary transcription (Reynolds); MAMA squeeze; publication.

History of Recording

Recorded by the MAMA expedition; not reported subsequently.

Bibliography

Published by Cormack from the MAMA records, MAMA 8, no. 457, whence McCabe 172.

Photographs

No photographs