MAMA XI 164 (Kidyessos)

Funerary bomos of Apphia and family, Christians

Type of monument:: Funerary bomos.
Location:: Güney (Kidyessos): by the new mosque.
Description:: Whitish Dokimeian marble bomos, broken above, the lower end recut as a moulding. The shaft rough-picked, with smoothed panels for the inscription on front and left-hand faces. Inscription begins on front face (lines 1-6) and continues on left-hand face (lines 7-8); on the left-hand face, above the inscription, the base of a large incised cross.
Dimensions:: Ht. 0.74+; W. 0.28-0.30; Th. 0.27-0.28; letters 0.012-0.017.
Record:: Squeeze; line drawing; MB notebook copy; photograph (1956/10).
Publication:: None.
Date:: Second or third century AD.

front face
Αφφια〚ς〛 Ἑρμῇ συνβί-
ῳ ζῶσα κὲ ἑαυτῇ κὲ
τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτοῖ-
ς Τροφίμῳ κὲ Ἑρμογᾷ
5κὲ Αὐξάνοντι τέκν[ο]-
ις γλυκυτάτοις ἐπο[ί]-
left-hand face
ησε μνήμης χάριν·
Χριστιανοί.

Apphia made this while still living for her husband Hermes and for herself and for the children themselves, Trophimos and Hermogas and Auxanon, sweetest children, in memoriam. Christians.

In line 1, the mason seems originally to have inscribed ΑΦΦΙΑΣ, before erasing the sigma. Both Αφφια and Αφφιας are attested as women’s names in this region (Zgusta 1964: 83-4, §66-51 and §66-53). In lines 3-4, τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτοῖς is likely to be a confusion for τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτῶν, ‘their children’. For the layout of the inscription (beginning on one face, then continuing on the face to the left), compare MAMA XI 105 (1955/104: Akmoneia).

The single word Χριστιανοί is not uncommon in this region as a way of indicating the deceased’s faith: cf. e.g. MAMA XI 122 (1956/41: Akmoneia); MAMA VI 235-6 (Apameia); Waelkens 1986: 197-8, no. 488 (Temenouthyrai). For discussion, see Gibson 1978; Mitchell 1993: II 37-43. It is unfortunate that this monument cannot be more closely dated. The absence of the nomen Aurelius, combined with the fine lettering, could be taken to support a date before AD 212.