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Last Updated on 02 Mar 2017

Author: Maria-Gabriella Parissaki

CAPInv. 1774: hoi porphyrobaphoi

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Macedonia
ii. Region Edonis
iii. Site Philippi

II. NAME

i. Full name (original language) οἱ πορφυροβάφοι (Philippi II 697/M580, ll. 1-2)
ii. Full name (transliterated) hoi porphyrobaphoi

III. DATE

i. Date(s) ii - iii AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

ii. Name elements
Professional:πορφυροβάφοι, porphyrobaphoi (=purple-dyers).

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) Philippi II 697/M580 (ii - iii AD)
Online Resources TM 127006
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Greek honorary inscription set up by a polis (name not specified in the text) for a citizen of Thyateira.
i.c. Physical format(s) Marble fragment (0.57 X 0.38)
ii. Source(s) provenance Philippi, seen by Mertzides in 1892 reused in the walls of a recently ruined military camp (but see below, historical authenticity).

VII. ORGANIZATION

ii. Leadership The honorand is defined as πρῶτος ἐκ τῶν πορφυροβάφων, protos ek ton porphyrobaphon.
iii. Members Collectively designated as πορφυροβάφοι, porphyrobaphoi.

IX. MEMBERSHIP

iv. Status The honorand was a citizen of Thyateira. For an association of purple-dyers attested at Thessaloniki and also mentioning a citizen of Thyateira, see CAPInv. 786, with further comments.

XII. NOTES

i. Comments The word purpurarii is partially restituted in a fragmentarily preserved Latin inscription from Philippi, see Philippi II 646/L035.
iii. Bibliography Pilhofer, P. (1995), Philippi I. Die erste christliche Gemeinde Europas. Tübingen: 177-182.
Pilhofer, P. (2009), Philippi, Band II: Katalog der Inschriften von Philippi. 2nd edn. Tübingen.
Robert, L. (1939), ‘Hellenica V. Inscriptions de Philippes publiées par Mertzidès’, RPh 13: 136-150 (=OMS II: 1289-1303).

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Certain
Note If indeed authentic, this would be a private association of professionals.
ii. Historical authenticity Robert 1939: 142 strongly questioned the text's authenticity on the grounds of Mertzidis' untrustworthiness. But other scholars accept its authenticity and Pilhofer (1995 and 2009) has drawn attention to the fact that the same stone has been seen and commented upon a few years after Mertzidis' publication by a second scholar (Lambakis).