MAMA XI 36 (Eumeneia)

The inscriptions on Faces A and B were cut by the same mason. The inscription on Face A is dated precisely to Month 2 of Year 331 of the Sullan era (i.e. late AD 246), but no date is given on Face B; most probably the date applies to both faces of the stone. For the use of numbered months in the cities of southern Phrygia, see the commentary to MAMA XI 80 (1956/36: Sebaste); at Eumeneia, compare MAMA XI 38 (1954/17); MAMA XI 35 (Barnett 1954/2). The collaborative use of a single tombstone to mark two different family graves (apparently lying at right-angles to one another: B 3-4) is unusual, but cf. MAMA VI 325 (Akmoneia): τύνβοις γὰρ δύο τοῦτο τὸ σῆμα ἐπίκιται (two brothers and their families).

In line A 3, the correct reading is certainly Σηίου; for the name Seius at Eumeneia, see MAMA IV 341 (M. Seius Demagoras). For the name Κόμψη (B 5-6), cf. Robert, Hellenica X, 102 n.11. For the provision in lines A 11-13 (Alexandros’ daughters only to receive a place in the tomb if they die childless), see the commentary to MAMA XI 40 (1956/58).

This inscription provides us with the earliest dated example of the so-called ‘Eumeneian formula’ (A 14-16, B 15-16: ἔσται αὐτῷ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, ‘he will have to reckon with God’): see further MAMA XI 40 (1956/58), 41 (1954/21), 42 (1954/78=1957/167), all from Eumeneia; 17 (1956/93) (Apollonia); 181 (1955/24) (Synnada); 177 (1955/73: Prymnessos). This funerary curse-formula was widespread in southern Phrygia, and particularly on the territory of Eumeneia, in the late third and fourth centuries AD. The formula is generally regarded as Christian, but was demonstrably also used by Jews and pagans in the region: see especially Robert, Hellenica XI/XII, 399-413 (with earlier bibliography); Feissel 1980: 463-4; Trebilco 2002. Mitchell 1993: II 40 n.243 provides a list of datable third-century Christian inscriptions from Eumeneia and neighbouring cities.

The curse-formula in A 17-19 and B 16-18 (μὴ τύχυτο τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπανγελίας, ‘may he have no share in God’s promise’) appears to be unique. The same sentiment is also attested in a recently-published Phrygian funerary inscription of uncertain provenance, perhaps from Eumeneia (SEG 55, 1431): ἔσται αὐτῷ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν κα̣ὶ ΑΦ̣ΛΥΚ̣ΕΤΟΝ (ἀφαιρετὸν Chaniotis) αὐτοῦ τὸ μέρος τὸ ἐπουράνιον, ‘he shall have to reckon with God, and may his share in heaven be (?) taken away from him’. Robert compared the formula in our inscription with a Jewish tombstone from Beth She‘arim (Schwabe and Lifshitz 1974: no. 162; BE 1956, 340; Hellenica XI/XII, 408-9), stating that ‘whoever moves this [woman] shall be judged by Him who has promised to raise the dead to life’ (ὁ ἐπανγιλάμενος ζωποιῆσε τοὺς νεκρούς). An even closer parallel, as Robert later noted (BE 1958, 44), is provided by a Christian funerary inscription from Constantinople dated to AD 555 (Macridy and Ebersolt 1922: 356-62, no. 1, with Feissel 1994: 277-83), which declares that ‘I, the lowly one, have lived my short span of life; (now) I have received my share in God’s promise’ (κἀγὼ γὰρ ὁ ταπεινὸς ζῆσας τὸν ὀλίγον μου χρόνον τῆς ζωῆς, ἔτυχον τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τοῦ Θ(εο)ῦ).