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Last Updated on 14 Mar 2017

Author: Alexandru Avram

CAPInv. 1322: (hoi) peri hierea Xenon (sic) Erotos thieseitai [l. thiasitai]

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Black Sea Region
ii. Region North coast of the Black Sea
iii. Site Tanais

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) (οἱ) περὶ <ἱε>ρέα Ξένων (sic) Ἔρωτος ... θιεσεῖται [l. θιασῖται] (CIRB 1259, ll. 7-8)
ii. Full name (transliterated) (hoi) peri hierea Xenon (sic) Erotos thieseitai [l. thiasitai]

III. DATE

i. Date(s) 104 AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Personal:(hoi) peri hierea

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) CIRB 1259 (AD 104).
Online Resources CIRB 1259 and AGRW ID 1839
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Greek dedication 'celebrating the th[.] (θ[.] on the stone) Day of Tanais'.
i.c. Physical format(s) Marble stele broken in two joining parts with relief depicting a horseman to right and, in front of him, an altar and a tree.
ii. Source(s) provenance Tanais

VII. ORGANIZATION

ii. Leadership Xenon Erotos ἱερεύς, hiereus (ll. 7-8).
iii. Members Under the heading τῶν λοιπῶν θιεσειτῶν, (l. θιασιτῶν) ton loipon thiasiton (l. 12, wronly in gen. instead of the acc.) are engraved the names (with patronymics) of 13 members.
iv. Officials One συναγωγός, synagogos (ll. 8-9).
One φιλάγαθο[ς], philagatho[s] (ll. 9-10).
One παρ[α]φιλάγαθος, par[a]philagathos (ll. 10-12).

IX. MEMBERSHIP

i. Number 17, 4 officials and 13 members.
ii. Gender Men
Note The attested names are male names.
iii. Age Adults

X. ACTIVITIES

iii. Worship Association celebrating the 'Day of Tanais': ἄ[γ]οντες θ[.] ἡμέραν Τανάϊδος, a[g]ontes th[.] hemeran Tanaidos, i.e. 'celebrating the [..]th Day of Lanais'. See below: XII.i.
Deities worshipped God Tanais or a river god Tanais

XII. NOTES

i. Comments There is no consensus concerning the deity worshipped by this association: a river god Tanais, as suggested by the first editor (Knipovich 1949: 118, recently accepted with further arguments in Ivanchik 2008: 64-5 [SEG 58: 785]) or an eponymous city god Tanais (Arsen'eva, Böttger and Vinogradov 1996: 69). An alternative possibility would be to attribute this stele to the well known θίασος, thiasos, of Θεὸς Ὕψιστος, Theos Hypsistos (CAPInv. 1324), as suggested in Ustinova 1999: 194-5, insofar this cult is attested since the early 1st century AD on the Lower Tanais (Don) by CIRB 1316 and the association has the same staff (ἱερεύς, hiereus, συναγωγός, synagogos, φιλάγαθος, philagathos, and παραφιλάγαθος, paraphilagathos) as the cult association for this god, whose documents are group during he reign of Sauromates II (AD 173/4-210/11) and his successors.
iii. Bibliography Arsen'eva, T.M., Böttger, B., and Vinogradov, Ju.G. (1996), ‘Novye issledovanija v Tanaise [New Researches in Tanais]’, VDI 3: 69.
Ivanchik, A.I. (2008), ‘Tri nadpisi fiasov ellinisticheskogo vremeni iz Tanaisa (Novye dannye o greko-iranskom zvaimodejstvii v Tanaise dopolemonovoj epokhi) [Three Inscriptions of the Hellenistic Period of Thiasoi from Tanais. New Data on Greek-Iranian Relationship in Tanais before Polemo’s Time]’, VDI 2: 64-5.
Jajlenko, V.P. (2010): Tysjacheletnij Bosporskij Rejkh [A Thousand Year Bosporan Reich (sic)]. Moscow: 331-56.
Knipovich, T.N. (1949), Tanais. Moscow, Leningrad: 117-8.
Shelov, D.B. (1972), Tanais i Nizhnyi Don v pervye veka nashej ery [Tanais and the Lower Don in the First Centuries AD]. Moscow: 274.
Ustinova, Yu. (1999), The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom. Celestial Aphrodite and the Most High God. Leiden, Boston,Cologne: 192-5.
Zavojkina, N.V. (2012), Bosporskie fiasy: mezhdu polisom i monarkhiej [Bosporan Thiasoi: Between Polis and Monarchy]. Moscow: 102-5.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Certain
Note The terminology suggests a private association.