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Last Updated on 09 Jul 2019

Author: Nikolaos Giannakopoulos

CAPInv. 677: U-WAM-029

I. LOCATION

i. Geographical area Western Asia Minor
ii. Region Bithynia
iii. Site Nikaia

II. NAME

i. Association with unknown name U-WAM-029

III. DATE

i. Date(s) l. i BC - iii AD

IV. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY

iii. Descriptive terms συνγενικόν, (l. συγγενικόν, syngenikon)
Note syngenikon: I.Iznik 1034, l. 6

V. SOURCES

i. Source(s) I.Iznik 1034 (iii AD)
Online Resources I.Iznik 1034
i.a. Source type(s) Epigraphic source(s)
i.b. Document(s) typology & language/script Dedication in Greek of an altar to Apollo Gorzaios on behalf of the syngenikon.
i.c. Physical format(s) Marble altar.
ii. Source(s) provenance The inscription was found built in a house at the village Katliç in the vicinity of Iznik. The exact provenance is unknown.

VI. BUILT AND VISUAL SPACE

ii. References to buildings/objects An altar is dedicated on behalf of the syngenikon.

VIII. PROPERTY AND POSSESSIONS

ii. Realty The altar dedicated on behalf of the syngenikon was probably in the group’s possession.

X. ACTIVITIES

iii. Worship The altar dedicated to Apollo Gorzaios on behalf of the syngenikon suggests that the latter performed cultic activities addressed to that deity.
Deities worshipped Apollo Gorzaios

XII. NOTES

i. Comments Şahin in I.Iznik 1034, p. 171a attributes the inscription to the Imperial Period, considering the 3rd century AD as the most likely date.
Anthos, the dedicator of the altar, in all probability a member of the family-group styled as to syngenikon, functioned as a benefactor by providing for the infrastructure of a cult to which the group seems to have been particularly devoted.
The provenance of the inscription suggests that the members of the syngenikon were not urban dwellers but residents of one or more villages in the vicinity of Nikaia. In the Byzantine Period Gordoserba was the name of a bishopric subject to Nikaia; furthermore a city created by Justinian bore the name Nova Justiniana Gordus and corresponded to the bishopric of Mela or Modrene, also subject to Nikaia. It is thus possible that the epithet Gorzaios (= Gordiaios?) was derived from a toponym of an area or a settlement which belonged to the territory of Nikaia (see Jones 1937: 166-7; Şahin in I.Iznik 1034, p. 171a).
iii. Bibliography Jones, A.H.M. (1937), Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces. Oxford.
Poland, F. (1909), Geschichte des griechischen Vereinswesens. Leipzig.

XIII. EVALUATION

i. Private association Probable
Note On associations defined as syngeneia or with other correlated terms see Poland 1909: 88. Whether the syngenikon of our inscription corresponded to an organized association or was just a term used ad hoc to denote the dedicator’s relatives on behalf of whom the dedication was made cannot be established with certainty. The term syngenikon appears in another dedication to Apollo (styled this time as Lykios) from the vicinity of Nikaia (I.Iznik 1035, CAPInv. 681) but the fact that this second dedication was found in a relative distance from the village Katliç does not permit us to identify the two homonymous groups and thus to ascertain the permanent nature of our syngenikon. However, the dedication of the altar does indicate lasting cultic activities on the part of the syngenikon, though not necessarily a durable organisational structure.