The record-union., 1898-03-21

ed members of the Christian congrega-
tionS III these cities of Phrygia. Liter
allure shows US the character and works
of the great church leaders and heret-
les: but if we want to find out any
thing about an ordinary congregation
in a Roman city we must go to the
epitaphs and above all to the epitaphs
of Eumeneia in Phrygia. They bring
before US a picture of rich and gener-
Gus development. of concession, of lib
crafty, in which people of adverse
thoughts were practically reconciled in
single society. But they also show
| us Eumeneia as mainly a city of Chris
tians in the third century. Nothing
similar to this is known throughout the
ancient world. Eumeneia stands before
us as the earliest Christian city of
which record remains and eXemplifes
the reconciliation of two hostile relig
ions IN a peaceful and orderly city.
Another notable contribution of
Ramsay to Christian archaeology is IN
his lind of the Alexander stella and of
the Abercius stella on his first and sec
ond visits to Phryg;a The AberciuS
inscription was known to the ByZan,
tine hagiologists, but had been cOnsid
cred generally as a piece of legendary
poetry. The biography of Abercius re-
lates that Abercius was Bishop of
Hierapolis in Phrygia in the second
half of the second century and that
during the reign OF Marcus Aurelius
and Lucius Verus he visited Rome and
on his return in his seventy second
year caused his epitaph to be engraved
upon 4 slab. But the unsolvable diff
Guilty appeared that among the Bish-
ops Of Hierapolis at that time the name
of Abercius does not appear. This
doubt vanished perfectly in conse-
quence of discoveries due to w. Ram
say in his first journey through Phry
gia in 1882 to Hierapolis. He found a
stella from the year 5000 of the Phry-
gian reckoning. 216 of the Christian
reckoning. In his second journey he
found the original inscription of Aber-
cius built into the walls of a bath Put
ting these two stella together and with
the help OF the MS. copies the entire in
scription is reproduced.
1t appears that the stone found in
1882 contained an inscription taken
from the first and the last parts of
the Abercius inscription, with the sub
stitution of Alexander for Abercius,
ii.
The entire inscription makes up forty
four lines. In substance it relates that
Abercius went to Rome to behold the
splendor of the city; that he passed
through Syria, visited Nisibis, crossed
the Euphrates, and everywhere faith
is his guide, everywhere he feeds upon
the mystic '.Ichthus, everywhere he
received brotherly greeting.
De Rossi esteems this inscription one
of the most important, one of the most
remarkable monuments which Christian
antiquity has given US. "Epigrama dig
initiate at pretio inter Christiana facile
princeps." Here we have a testimony
to the widespread truth in the begin
ming of the third century and in all prob
ability in the latter half of the second
century. The mystic allusion to Christ
ianity under the name Ichthus accords
with Ramsay's description of the sign
language of the Phrygian Christian
monuments. Lightfoot accords with De
Rossi in his high estimate of this in
scription. He is followed by Kraus
Wilpert and others. Harnack is in
Clined to reckon it among the fruits of
the Asiatic Cybele cultus, but he has
scant following among Christian arch
biologists. The stella has been donated
by the Sultan TO the Christian museum
OF the Vatican. Its genuineness conce-
ded, it is the first dated Christian in
scription which carries US back within
the latter half of the second century.
Within the past twenty-five years the