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A church with a Roman inscription in Tairia, Monemvasia1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
Abstract
In Tairia, at a distance of about 10 km from Monemvasia, is a small complex of two Byzantine churches, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin and Ag. Anna. Each has a simple one-aisled plan covered by a barrel vault with an intermediate arch. Wall paintings exist in both churches dating from the twelfth, the thirteenth century, and later. The church of the Assumption, or Theotokos, is older and could be dated to the tenth century and thus identified with the church mentioned in a contemporary source, the Life of St. Theodore of Kythira. Ag. Anna imitates the plan of the older church and seems to have occupied the place of earlier service buildings. Built in, on the top of the altar table in the church of the Assumption, is a marble slab with a completely preserved Greek inscription of the Roman period, consisting of five lines which cover the whole surface of the slab and commemorate the dedication to the deities of the Imperial cult (Θεοί Σεστοί) and to a πόλις, the name of which is not known, of a makellon by three Roman citizens out of their own funds. The most probable date for the inscription seems to be the second century AD, but, even though makella existed in few Peloponnesian cities, neither the polis where the establishment was erected is known, nor can the dedicators be safely identified.
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References
2 Kalligas 1990, passim.
3 For a survey of the churches of SE Lakonia, which is not exhaustive, see Drandakis 1982 and 1983; cf. also Nagatsuka 1994 and D. Hayer, ‘La Laconie byzantine du debut du IXe s. au début du XIIe s.: histoire et architecture’ (thèse de 3ème cycle, Université des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg, 1982).
4 Kalligas 1990, 151, 223–8; cf. also pl. 1.
5 Kalligas 1990, pl. 1.
6 Nagatsuka 1994, ii. 8–9; Kepetzi 1984, 26; Drandakis 1982, 386–91.
7 Oikonomidis, N. A., ‘῾Ο βίος τοῦ ῾ Αγίου Θεοδώρου Κυθήρων (ιο αἰ) (12 Μαῖου ΒΗG(3) ἀρ. 2430’ (Πρακτικἁ Τρίτου Πανιονίου Συνεδρίου, 23–29 Σεπτεμβρίου 1965, 1; Athens, 1967), 266–7, 271, 278, 282–7Google Scholar.
8 Miklosich, Fr. and Müller, Ios., Acta et Diplomata Monasleriorum et Ecclesiarum Orientis, ii (Vienna, 1887), 163Google Scholar; cf. Kalligas 1990. 224.
9 References to various dates, 1758, 1760. 1794, 1814. and 1823, are found in a codex of the metropolitan church of Chnstos Elkomenos in Monemvasia, Bees, N., ‘Ο τρίτος κῶδιξ τῆς Μητροπόλεως Μονεμβασίας καὶ Καλαμἀτας, ᾿Επετηρίς τοῦ Μεσαιωνικοῦ Αρχείου, 6 (1956), 6, 29, 36, 40, 51Google Scholar. They refer to the μονύδριον or ‘small monastery’ of the Theotokos, as well as the village, and various fields in its area. The village is also mentioned in 1828 as belonging to the area of Monemvasia, Beliá, E., ‘Στατιστικἁ στοχεῖα τῆς ἐπαρχίας ᾿Επιδαύρου Λιμηρᾶς’, Lak. Spoud. 5 (1980), 67Google Scholar.
10 Professor V. Kepetzi in Kepetzi 1984, 26 and in Drandakis 1982, 390, expresses the view that there was an earlier building.
11 The fact that Anthony had settled there, and that the later references are to a μονύδριον and not just a church, suggests that there must have been facilities of this sort.
12 The date 1956 appears on the plaster of the western low wall near the iron entrance gate of the same style.
13 Cf. Drandakis 1983, 221–3, on the Byzantine church of Ag. Nikolaos in the village of Niata in the Monemvasia area, where the change from timber roof to barrel-vault with 13th-c. paintings is still visible.
14 There could have been, however, some building works around 1823, as seems to be suggested by one of the mentions in the Elkomenos codex, Bees (n. 9), 29.
15 This feature is found in other churches of the area too, dating from various periods; cf. Drandakis 1982, 398, 450, 460; Drandakis 1983, 210; Hayer (n. 3), 98 and pl. 13; Kalligas 1993, 164, 166 pl. 6, 168 pl. 9; Konstantinidi 1998, 13, 35 and n. 144, 103 pl. 1, 106 pl. 4 b. More general remarks on this element, found in many monuments in various places during the middle Byzantine period, in Vokotopoulos, P., ‘῾Η ἐκκλησισοτικὴ ἀρχιτεκτονική εἰς τήν δυτικήν Στερεἀν ῾ Ελλάδα καὶ τὴν ᾿ ´ Ηπειρον ἀπὸ τοῦ τέλους τοῦ 7 μέχρι τοῦτέλους τοῦ 10 αἰῶνος (Κέντρον Βυζαντινῶν Ερευνῶν Βυζαντινἁ Μνημεῖα 2; Thessaloniki, 1975), 135–6Google Scholar.
16 There is no marble in the peninsula of Lakonike, which used to be the territory of Monemvasia; most of the churches have the iconostasis built in stone; cf. Drandakis 1982, passim and especially pp. 365–8 and 421 and n. 4; Drandakis 1983, 257–63.
17 Gf. Drandakis 1983, 240–23, where, however, nothing is mentioned about the roofing.
18 Above, n. 13. The area in general is notorious for its conservatism and there are frequent cases of survival of older forms.
19 However, this part too has cracks, which could have been caused either by a second earthquake or by the continuous deterioration of the condition of the construction.
20 Drandakis 1983, 389, Kepetzi 1984, 26.
21 Drandakis 1983, 390.
22 Vokotopoulos, P., ‘Περί τήν χρονολόγησιν τοῦ ἐν Κερκύρα ναοῦ τῶν ῾Αγίων ᾿Ιἀσονμος και Σωσιπάτρου’, Δελτίον τῆς Χριστιανικῆς ᾿ Αρχαιολογικῆς Εταιρείας, 4/5 (1966–1969), 159Google Scholar n. 47; id. (n. 15), 132–5; Pallas, D., ‘᾿Η Παναγία τῆς Σκριποῦς ὡς μετάπλαση τῆς παλαιοχριστιανικῆς ἀρχιτεκτονικῆς σὲ μεσαιωνικἠ Βυζαντινἡ’, ᾿ Επετηρὶς Εταιρείας Στερεοελλαδικῶν Μελετῶν, 6 (1976–1977), 66Google Scholar; Konstantinidi 1998, 13.
23 Vokotopoulos (n. 15), 142–5.
24 This cannot be attributed, as in other areas of Greece, to the Frankish occupation after the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in 1204; Monemvasia and its area remained free until the middle of the 13th c. and apparently received many groups who fled from lands occupied by the Latins; there is an impressive number of churches painted during the 13th c. in the area, Kalligas 1990, 83–91; Drandakis ig82 and 1983, passim.
25 For an inscription honouring Hadrian, possibly on an orthostat, built into the altar of the church of Ag. Nikolaos at Avlemon on Kythira in a manner very similar to our stone, see SEG 38. 331; Petrocheilos, I. E., BSA 83 (1988), 359–62Google Scholar. See below, n. 2g, for later research on this inscription.
26 Cf. the similar conclusions of Kennell, N. M., Hesp. 61 (1992) 196–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar, about the date of this style of lettering.
27 Price, S. R. F., JHS 104 (1984) 84 n. 45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; cf. id., Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge, 1984), 215–16.
28 Reynolds, J., ZPE 43 (1981), 317–27Google Scholar; ead., Studii Clasice, 24 (1986), 109–17Google Scholar; M. Hoff, AA 1994, 108–9; Wörrle, M., Chiron, 25 (1995), 68–9Google Scholar; Zoumbaki, S. and Mendoni, L., Meletemata, 27 (1998), 669–78Google Scholar. I am greatly indebted to Sophia Zoumbaki for bringing this important publication to my attention.
29 The inscription built into the altar in the church of Agios Nikolaos (above, n. 25) is a useful parallel, for there is no ancient polis (l. 1) at Avlemon on Kythira. Petrocheilos (n. 25) speculated that the limestone slab was brought to the church from nearby Palaiopolis, which seems to have been occupied in Roman times, but left open the possibility that it came to the harbour of Avlemon from far away. For the Roman remains at Palaiopolis, see id., Τἀ Κύθηρα ἀπό τήν προϊοτορικὴ ἐποχἡ ῶς τὴ ῾Ρωμαιοκρατία (Dodone supp. 21; 1984), 77–87. New readings in l. 1 by Pikoulas, Y. A., Horns, 10–12 (1992–1998), 563–4Google Scholar, no. 3, have now demonstrated that this inscription is indeed a pierre errante originating in the coastal Lakonian polis of Las. For the text see too E. Kapetanopoulos, ibid., 215 n. 1; SEG 42. 305.
30 LGPNVIIIA, s.v., nos. 1–7.
31 Spawforth 1989, 260 n. 4. For these men see (1) IG v. 1. 675, 1. 6; Bradford 1977, s.v., no. 2, AD 105; (2) IG v. 1. 20B, 1. 2; SEG 11. 607, 1. 7 (restored); Woodward, A. M., BSA 26 (1923–1925), 168Google Scholar, C6, C7, 1. 5; Bradford 1977, s.v., no 4, AD 105–10; (3) IG v. 1. 109, 1. 9; Bradford 1977, s.v., no. 1, c. AD 150; (4) IG v. 1. 109, 1. 9; Bradford 1977, s.v., no. 3, c. AD 160–70. See too Cauwenberght, C. Höet-Van in Chastagnol, A. et al. (eds), Splendissima Civitas: études d'hisloire romaine en hommage à Francois Jacques (Paris, 1996), 136–7Google Scholar.
32 Cf. LGPN I, s.v., nos. 1–4. In Athens, for instance, none of the twenty-two examples is certainly dated before AD 113; LGPN II, s.v., nos. 1–22. The name is current much earlier in Pompeii; see LGPJ IIIA, s.v., nos. 12–21. To the examples attested epigraphically should be added the sculptor Flavius Chryseros from Aphrodisias, RE iii, coll. 2495–6, s.v. Chryseros, no. 4, Trajan/Hadrian, and the historian freedman of Marcus Aurelius, PIR II2 no. 724.
33 Thirty-two attestations in Lakonia and Messenia alone; see LGPN IIIA, s.v., nos. 125–57.
34 Cf. Bechtel, F., Die histonschen Personennamen des Griechischen bis zur Kaiserzeit (Halle, 1917), 500–6Google Scholar, ‘Namen nach Temperament und Charakter’; Solin, H., Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom: Ein Namenbuch (Berlin, 1982), ii. 649–56Google Scholar, ‘Namen aus poetischen Appellativen’.
35 The other two are at Hypata in Thessaly (De Ruyt 1983, 264) and Philippoi (ibid., 133–6). For a possible reference to a macellum in Peiraieus in SEG 47. 196B, 1. 7, see Descat, R. in Économic antique: Prix et formation des prix dans les économies antiques: Entretiens d'archéologie et d'histoire (Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, 1997), 13–20Google Scholar.
36 e.g. dedications to Claudius and the pagus and to Commodus and the pagus at Thugga (De Ruyt 1983, 217–18); to Zeus Soter Olympios and to Hadrian at Larisa in Lydia (ibid., 97); to Commodus by a priest of the Sebastoi at Sagalessos (ibid., 190); to Alexander Severus at Iulium Carnicum (ibid., 95); to Alexander Severus and Iulia Mammaea at Thignica (ibid., 207); to Macrinus at Domavia (ibid., 68); to Theodosius, Arcadius, and Honorius at Puteoli (ibid., 158); to the πόλις; by a priest of the Sebastoi at Apollonia in Mysia (ibid., 37); and to the municipium at Marruvium (ibid., 108).
37 Eleven examples in De Ruyt 1983, 22, 52–3, 60, 67, 107, 123, 137, 198, 218–19.