Endnote 3 – Godfearers in the City of Love

For instance, six names (Acholios, Adolios, Anikios, Heortasios, Oxycholios and Patrikios) appear in the record at least one generation after the Constitutio Antoniniana of 212 C.E. Another four names (Amantios, Anysios, Eupeithios and Manikios) are not attested until at least one century after the early date. A few other cases should suffice. In the case of Eusebios, 90 percent of the attestations of this name in inscriptions and papyri are after c. 200. In the case of Eutropios, it is 95 percent. In the case of Gregorios, 97 percent.

The inscription on Face I cannot have been inscribed earlier than the fourth century; such a date can best be reconciled with the letterforms and the mention of councilors (bouleutai) among the “Godfearers.” The inscription on Face II is certainly later than Face I.

The sign s, used to abbreviate words or names, is attested in this function in inscriptions only from the fourth century onwards. The formulaic expression theos boethos is not attested earlier than the fourth century and became common only after c. 350. The word palatinos, probably a designation of status, makes most sense in the context of late antiquity. The presence of three proselytes would be surprising only a few years after the reinforcement of the early-third-century anti-conversion laws under Septimius Severus.

Conversely, what we would expect if the inscription dated to the mid-third century is not there. After the award of Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire (with the Constitutio Antoniniana of 212 C.E.), the recipients of citizenship added to their name the Latin names Marcus Aurelius. None of the some 123 persons listed in the two texts has this name. Consequently, the texts were written either before 212 C.E. or long after that date, when Roman citizen nomenclature had been abandoned for a single-name system (fourth or fifth century).

Joyce Reynolds herself observed that the letterforms in the inscription can be reconciled with a date any time between c. 200 and c. 450 C.E. Although she preferred the earlier date, she never concealed the fact that the arguments for an early date are not conclusive.