MAMA XI 174 (Kidyessos) 
Templon epistyle mentioning Nikephoros hypatos
- Type of monument:
- Templon epistyle with inscription.
- Location:
- Akçaşar (Kidyessos): in the west wall of the mosque.
- Description:
- Bluish-white crystalline marble templon epistyle with decorative relief, broken left and right; inscription on upper moulding.
- Dimensions:
- Ht. 0.145; W. 0.27+; Th. 0.10+; letters 0.017-0.023.
- Record:
- Squeeze; line drawing; MB notebook copy (1956/16).
- Publication:
- None.
- Date:
- Tenth or eleventh century AD.
[- - -] Νηκιφόρου ὑπάτου[- - -]
...of Nikephoros, of the rank of hypatos...
Illustrations:
Squeeze of MAMA XI 174 (Kidyessos 15: 1956-16)
Line drawing of MAMA XI 174 (Kidyessos 15: 1956-16)
This inscribed epistyle, with a relief depiction of a ten-pointed rosette within decorative strapwork, is of a type characteristic of the middle Byzantine period: compare for instance the epistyle from the western templon of the Lower City Church at Amorion (Ivison 2008: 506), or the templon of the Panagia Krina on Chios (Pennas 2008). For the design of the strapwork, compare Fıratlı 1970: 139 Res. 34-6 (templon of eleventh-century church at Sebaste). By the tenth century AD, ὕπατος was a relatively minor honorific title in the Byzantine aulic hierarchy, and hence cannot here be serving as a dating mechanism: see Guilland 1967: II 44-67.