V 304. Pantikapaion. Epitaph of Kyriakos (?), 497–498 C.E.
Monument
Type
Panel.
Material
Marble.
Dimensions (cm)
H. 23.0, W. 22.0, Th. 12.0.
Additional description
Broken on the top and left.
Place of Origin
Pantikapaion.
Find place
Kerch (?).
Find context
Unknown.
Find circumstances
Unknown.
Modern location
Kerch, Crimea.
Institution and inventory
Historical and Archeological Museum of Kerch State Historical and Cultural Preserve, no inventory number.
Autopsy
May 1999, September 2005.
Epigraphic field
Position
On the front.
Lettering
Lapidary; letters with serifs. Alpha with broken crossbar, delta with extended horizontal and pointy apex.
Letterheights (cm)
3.5–5.
Text
Category
Epitaph.
Date
497–498 C.E.
Dating criteria
Explicit date.
Editions
L1. Latyshev 1904, 86, № 100; 1.1. Diatroptov, Yemets 1995, 1; 1.2. Vinogradov 1998, 243–244, № 6.
<div type="edition" xml:lang="grc">
<ab>
<lb n="1"/><gap reason="illegible" quantity="3" unit="character"/>
<lb n="2"/><expan><abbr><supplied reason="lost">Κυ</supplied>ριακ</abbr><ex cert="low">ός</ex></expan>
<lb n="3"/><supplied reason="lost">Λεο</supplied>ντήσ<unclear>κ</unclear><supplied reason="lost">ου</supplied>
<lb n="4"/><supplied reason="lost">ἔτο</supplied>υς <num value="794">δϞψ</num> <g ref="#stauros"/>
</ab>
</div> Apparatus criticus
1-2: [ΟΙΜΗ ...]ντήσι Yu. Vinogradov;
om. Latyshev
3: δφψ´ Latyshev; corr. idem
Translation
...Kyriakos (?), son of Leontiskos (?), in the year 794.
Commentary
1–3. Latyshev did not attempt a critical edition of the first two lines, while an attempt of Yu.G. Vinogradov to read line 1 as ἐκ]οιμή[θη runs into several problems: firstly, this shape of mu is not attested in Bosporus at the end of the Vth century, so the strokes most likely belong to a typical alpha with broken crossbar; secondly, such a formula is not known in Bosporus prior to the VIII-IXth centuries (see V 318, V 319, V 320, V 321. On the name Kyriakos, see commentary to V 72. The name Leontiskos (here Leonteskos) is quite rare: it occurs in one Christian ((MAMA I 274, Pisidia) and in one Jewish (CIJ 701, Larissa) inscription.
4. Latyshev mistyped the year in Greek, but it is correct in his translation. On the correspondence between the year 'since Creation' and 'since the Birth of Christ' in the Middle Byzantine period, see Introduction IV. 4. D.
Although almost none of the late Bosporan tombstones are made of marble - in contrast to building inscriptions and Early Byzantine tombstones (cf. V 265, V 314) - still the physical shape of the monument is very close to that of tombstones. This is the latest inscription dated precisely according to the Bosporan era (cf. V 275): ca. 528 C.E., a Byzantine garrison was established in Bosporus (Ioannes Malalas. Chronographia 432), and the latter became part of the imperial domain.
Images
© 2015 Andrey Vinogradov (edition), Irene Polinskaya (translation)
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