87. Funerary Slab 3rd century White marble with oxidized, yellowish patina in places H. 0.48 m., w. 0.335 m., thickness 0.05 m., h. of lettering 0.015 m. Found at Ligouni, northwest of Paroikia, Paros, in the 19th c. Paroikia, Paros, Paroikia Archaeological Museum
The upper part of the inscribed slab has not survived, so we do not know the whole of the original text. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the content of the inscription identifies it as a funerary monument. From the surviving lines it is clear that Zosime’s parents have died and she has to give each of the men responsible for laying their bodies to rest in the family tomb the sum of eight assaria. The inscription does not indicate whether these were local fossores (gravediggers), decani, or copiatae. It is worth noting that the sum of eight assaria is too cheap to be the whole payment for the funeral expenses. This small sum may have been in the nature of a tip, considered adequate in the context of a community in economic decline, as was the case in the Cyclades at the turn of the 3rd century. Another noteworthy feature of the inscription is the expression: εν τω αιωνι μηδεν εχοντες η επανω τεσσαρες πλακες (having nothing for all eternity other than the four slabs above [us]), which departs radically from the usual phraseology found on pagan funerary steles. There is nothing, at least not nowadays, to point to either a Jewish or a Christian provenance. The inscribed text reflects the wellknown Late Antique phenomenon of cultural osmosis and mutual influence between two competing ideologies (pagan and Christian), which continued to coexist relatively peacefully up to the end of the 3rd century. This fragile balance was to be disturbed soon after Diocletian (284–305) became emperor. The funerary slab from Paros can be dated to the 3rd century not only on the basis of the reference to assaria (this term ceases to be mentioned in the sources in the reign of Diocletian) or even the Christian-influenced phraseology of the text, but also the carving of the letters, which is very archaizing. The Paros inscription is in some ways a boundary marker between the old order of things (i.e., of the Greco-Roman world) and the rapidly expanding new religion, just before their final showdown. G. Kiourtzian
Photo © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism Bibliography
ΩΣ…. ΝΟΥΝΤΑ και πο[θουντ]ες κ[ατα-] κειμεθα ώδε κάτω, εν τω αιώνι μηδεν εχοντες η επανω τεσσαρες πλακες· παρακαλω δε σε, θυγατηρ Ζωσιμη, μετα την εμην κοιμισιν τοις με καταστησουσιν ις τον αιωνιον οικον δωσις εκαστω ασσαρια οκτω (. . . and desiring to lie here, having nothing for all eternity but four slabs above [us]; I beseech you, daughter Zosime, after our death give those who laid us in our eternal home eight assaria each)
128
IG XII, 5 (Inscriptiones Cycladum), no. 329.