Heliodoros or the Fate of a Christian Councilman of Perinthos During the Great Persecution
This paper discusses a sarcophagus that was found in Gemlik (the ancient city of Kios) some years ago. It bears a longer than usual inscription with many orthographical and some grammatical errors. A certain Eikadios bought the sarcophagus for the burial of his father Heliodoros, who had been a boul...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
| Published: |
Akdeniz University
2017-05-01
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| Series: | Gephyra |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/gephyra/issue/29654/318455?publisher=nalan-eda-akyurek-sahin |
| Summary: | This paper discusses a sarcophagus that was found in Gemlik
(the ancient city of Kios) some years ago. It bears a longer than usual
inscription with many orthographical and some grammatical errors. A certain
Eikadios bought the sarcophagus for the burial of his father Heliodoros, who
had been a bouleutes and gerousiarches of the city of Thracian Herakleia
(Perinthos). In Kios Heliodoros had died as a Christian, but was still
unburied, when Eikadios had come there. He had acquired a burial place for him
and had taken care for his father’s entombment. In the inscription Eikadios
implores the Christian community of Kios to provide for the protection of the
sarcophagus, and additionally appointed his sister to a guardian of the burial
place and the sarcophagus. By allusions to the name change of Perinthos—which
in the inscription is referred to as ‹New Herakleia›— and to the splitting up
of the province Thracia into four subprovinces, we can date the inscription
into the period after AD 293. Other observations suggest that the death of Heliodoros
happened during the last noteworthy persecution of Christians in the Roman
Empire, that is in the time between February 303 and the so-called Edict of
Milan (February 313). Although many things remain obscure, this inscription is
an important new testimony for the situation of Christians during the Great
Persecution. |
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| ISSN: | 1309-3924 2651-5059 |