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The Life of Saint Theodotus of Ancyra*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Stephen Mitchell
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Extract

In December 1981, as this paper was being composed, there came the news of the tragic death of Colin Macleod. With shocking suddenness one had lost a former tutor, colleague and friend, whose passion, seriousness and total modesty were, in themselves, a reflection of the value and importance which he attached to ancient literature, and an inspiration to those who admired him both as a person and as a scholar. Apart from his work in the main stream of Classical writings he devoted much time and study to Patristic authors, and it does not seem inept that this examination of a fourth-century Saint's Life should be dedicated, with great sadness, to his memory.

In 1901 the Vatican scholar, Pio Franchi de' Cavalieri, published excellent editions, based on new manuscript recensions, of the Lives of two Anatolian saints, St. Theodotus of Ancyra and St. Ariadne of Prymnessus. The second Life, and a supplement to it published in the following year, have provided the material for a recent study by L. Robert, who demonstrates in detail that many biographical details found in it can be traced back to inscriptions of the Imperial period, thus providing, among other things, a valuable insight into its manner of composition.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 32 , December 1982 , pp. 93 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1982

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References

1 Studi e Testi 6. I martirii di S. Teodoto e di S. Ariadne con un' appendice sul testo originale del martirio di S. Eleuterio (Roma tipografia Vaticana 1901)Google Scholar. Reviewed, with some good observations, by Harnack, A., Theologische Literaturzeitung 1902, 358–61Google Scholar.

2 Studi e Testi 8. Note agiografiche 1. Ancora del martirio di S. Ariadne (Roma tipografia Vaticana 1902)Google Scholar.

3 A travers l'Asie Mineure (1980), 244–56Google Scholar.

4 Analecta Bollandiana 22 (1903), 320–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Franchi replied to the criticism in Nuovo bolletino di archeologia cristiana 10 (1904), 27–37Google Scholar.

5 Byzantinische Zeitschrift 44 (1951), 165–84Google Scholar.

6 For a similar summary see Delehaye, 320–2.

7 Delehaye, 325; on p. 321 he erroneously interprets the distance as forty stades, or five miles.

8 Delehaye, 328.

9 JHS 30 (1910), 165 no. 3Google Scholar; republished as RECAM II no. 205. The stone is still to be seen in the village.

10 Described by de Jerphanion, G., Mél. de l'Univ. St. Joseph 13 (1928), 107–12Google Scholar.

11 Compare the use of the term in the seventh-century Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon (ed. Festugière, A. J. 1970)Google Scholar, discussed by French, David, Roman Roads and Milestones of Asia Minor I: the Pilgrims' Road (1981), 45Google Scholar.

12 This road branched east from the Ancyra–Gangra road at the southern end of the Çubuk ova. Traces are still visible beside the modern road leading to Kalecik, and five milestones have been recorded at Çiftlik and at Kalecik itself: CIL III 309, 310Google Scholar = 6898, 1418455, 56, 57.

13 Foss, 35 n. 16.

14 The elogium of a place involved a specific description of its features, an ἔκφρασις τόπου. For the genre in the Byzantine period, see Karlsson, G., Idéologic et cérémoniale dans l'epistolographie byzantine (Uppsala, 1959), esp. pp. 112–17Google Scholar on the theme of the locus amoenus. See also Robert, L., Journal des Savants 1962, 73–4Google Scholar.

15 The events described took place at about the sixth hour, towards the middle of the day (c. 11).

16 Karlsson, op. cit., 115, citing Curtius, E. R., Europäische Literatur und lateinisches Mittelalter (second ed. Bern, 1954), 204Google Scholar. See too Nisbet, R. G. M. and Hubbard, M., A Commentary on Horace Odes book II (Oxford, 1978), 52–3Google Scholar.

17 εἰ μὲν εὐανθές τι εἴη τὸ δηλούμενον εὐανθῆ καὶ τὴν φράσιν εἶναι, Theon, , Progymnasmata 11Google Scholar (Spengel, L., Rhetores Graeci II (Leipzig, 1854), 119)Google Scholar.

18 For a conspectus of such city elogia, in the Byzantine period, see Robert, L., Journal des Savants 1961, 151–66Google Scholar.

19 Kaibel, G., Epigrammata Graeca (1878), no. 640Google Scholar; Peek, W., Griechische Versinschriften I (1955), no. 1018Google Scholar, with the commentary of Robert, L., Opera Minora Selecta IV (1974), 388–93Google Scholar.

20 Cuinet, V., La Turquie d'Asie IV (1894), 557Google Scholar.

21 Haci Halfa, translated by d'Armain, in de St.-Martin, L. Vivien, Histoire des découvertes géographiques des nations européennes III. Asie Mineure (Paris, 1846), 707Google Scholar. For this work see Robert, L., A travers l'Asie Mineure, 18 n. 34Google Scholar.

22 Hamilton, W. J., Researches in Asia Minor I (1842), 412Google Scholar.

23 Mordtmann, A., Skizzen und Reisebriefe aus Kleinasien (1850–59), edited by Babinger, F. (Hanover, 1925). 385–6Google Scholar.

24 Perrot, G., Revue des deux mondes 2 e sér. 44 (1863), 574Google Scholar.

25 JHS 30 (1910), 166–7Google Scholar. Anderson still followed the old reading ἐπισκοπίαν in place of Franchi's ἐπὶ σκοπίαν, which is clearly correct. This is a suitable opportunity to note two other textual points in c. 10 of the Life. I have accepted the emendation, suggested by Grégoire and Orgels, 183 n. 1, of κατοπτεύεται for καταπτύεται. Their other suggestion, following Anderson, op. cit., 166 n. 6, of ἀποβλέπουσαν for ἀποβλέπων is unnecessary; the participle agrees with Theodotus.

26 A visit, as a spectator, made in the autumn of 1971, to take borings for tree-ring dating.

27 Earlier explorers of Kalecik have not commented on remains in situ, apart from the castle. See Jerphanion, op. cit., 112: “Cependant, à l'époque romaine, il ne semble pas qu'un centre considérable ait occupé l'emplacement de Qalédjik. Les rares fragments antiques dispersés dans la ville ou remployés dans les murs de la citadelle ne prouvent pas qu'il y ait eu là plus qu'une bourgade.” Grégoire and Orgels, 184, who suggest that the site should be sought at the foot of the castle hill, were correct in their intuition.

28 Bean, G. E. and Mitford, T. B., Journeys in Rough Cilicia 1964–8, D. Ak. Wien 102 (1970), 200 no. 222Google Scholar.

29 Grégoire and Orgels, 184 n. 1. They erred in supposing that it might be found on the castle hill itself. Note, too, Pio Franchi's remark in Studi e Testi 49 (1928), 124Google Scholar: “Nè sarebbe da meravigliarsi che il santuario di S. Teodoto di Ancira sorgesse a quaranta miglia di là, nel villagio alpestre di Malos.”

30 BCH 21 (1897), 101 no. 22Google Scholar; RECAM II no. 211.

31 Although this inscription, like the stone base, probably dates to the fifth or sixth century, well after the composition of the Life; see p. 101 and pp. 112–3.

32 JRS 10 (1920), 52–3 and 58–9Google Scholar citing Basil, ep. 164 ad fin. (ed. Courtonne); Nazianz., Gregory, Anth. Pal. VIII.118.1Google Scholar; Cumont, F., Studia Pontica III, 124 no. 101Google Scholar; Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca no. 1063.

33 Studi e Testi 49 (1928), 120Google Scholar.

34 Guarducci, M., I. Cret. II, 126–7Google Scholar no. 21 = Bandy, A. C., The Greek Christian Inscriptions of Crete I (1970) no. 93 (Chania)Google Scholar; CIG 8609 (Syria, A.D. 367)Google Scholar; CIG 8625 (Bostra, Arabia, A.D. 511)Google Scholar; Ath. Mitt. 36 (1911), 296 (Zenonopolis, Isauria)Google Scholar; Beșeliev, V., Spätgriechische und spätlateinische Inschriften aus Bulgarien (Berlin, 1964), nos. 218 and 225Google Scholar. However, against Calder, see Wilhelm, A., Griechische Grabinschriften aus Kleinasien (1932), 845 f.Google Scholar; and compare Grégoire, H., Byzantion 1 (1924), 698Google Scholar.

35 de Jerphanion, G., Les églises rupestres de Cappadoce I (1925), 219, 320Google Scholar. For St. Plato see below nn. 61 and 66.

36 Delehaye, 327 citing Synaxarium eccl. CP, 546.

37 Grégoire and Orgels, 174 ff. I draw heavily on, and expand their arguments.

38 The names of the seven virgins are somewhat different in the Amisus version, which substitutes banal for distinctive forms. So, Θεοδοσία replaces Τεκοῦσα, Εὐφημία Φαεινή, and Ἰουλιανή Ἰουλίττα. See Grégoire and Orgels, 174 n. 1.

39 c. 16: .

40 See c. 20 (Theodotus restrained by his friends from giving himself up), and 21 (ὥρμησεν ἀμεταστρεπτὶ ἐπὶ τὸν δρόμον τῆς ἀθλήσως).

41 Tertullian, , De fuga in persecutione 9Google Scholar, quoting Montanus: “publicaris, inquit, bonum tibi est; qui enim non publicatur in hominibus, publicatur in Domino. Ne confundaris, iustitia te producit in medium. Quid confundaris laudem ferens? Potestas fit, cum conspiceris ab hominibus.” Sic et alibi: “Nolite in lectulis nee in aborsibus et febribus mollibus optare exire, sed in martyriis, uti glorificetur qui est passus pro vobis.” Cf. De anima 55.

42 c. 3: ἡ γὰρ καπηλεία τὴν μέθοδον ἐναλλάξασα ἐπισκοπῆς ἔργον ἐπλήρου ἐν εὐτελεī προσχήματι. He is also called an οἰνοπώλης by the governor (c. 27), a clue to the connection that linked him with the wine-growing village of Malos.

43 c. 31. Grégoire and Orgels recall the similar unofficial terms ἄρχων πατρίδος λαοῦ and λαοῦ προιστάμενος which occur on metrical inscriptions of the Upper Tembris valley (Petrie, A., in Ramsay, W. M. (ed.), Studies in the History and Art of the Eastern Roman Provinces (Aberdeen, 1908), 125–6Google Scholar, and J. G. C. Anderson, ibid., 201; Mendel, G., BCH 33 (1909), no. 428 1.11–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar; cf. Basil, , ep. 1Google Scholar 190, on officials called προιστάμενοι). But the phrase in the Life inevitably recalls the Julianic practice of referring to Christians as Galilaeans, and this may have some bearing on the date of composition. See below p. 113.

44 Panarion XLIX.2Google Scholar.

45 It is notable that a fifth-sixth century inscription of Ancyra (AS 27 (1977), 101 no. 49Google Scholar = SEG XXVII no. 882) mentions ἡ μία τῶν ε´ λαμπαδιφόρων παρθένων, ἡ θεοφιλεστάτη τοῦ χριστοῦ Στεφανία ἡγουμένη. Commenting on this inscription in the original publication I took the expression literally, adducing Gregory of Nysa, ep. 6, 10, as a parallel. Robert, J. L., Bull. ép. 1978, 489 no. 497Google Scholar, pointed out that the source of the expression is the parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins in Matthew 25, 1–13, Stephania being compared, by a conceit, with the leader of the five wise virgins. While this is clearly the correct explanation of the origin of the phrase (and parallels are to be found in the Latin West) it remains at least possible that Stephania was a member, and evidently a senior one, of the Montanist community, and that the title which she bore contains both a Biblical allusion and a reference to her function within the Montanist church. She is described as a leader of a religious community, and Professor C. P. Jones, who independently suggested the same interpretation of the text as the Roberts, points out that the feminine ἡγουμένη is rare by contrast with the frequent ἡγούμενος. The prominence of women in the Montanist church, attested by Epiphanius in the Panarion and elsewhere, would provide a ready explanation for Stephania's rank.

46 c. 19. Most of the names are attested in the epigraphy of Ancyra and its region. Τεκοῦσα, Bosch no. 330; RECAM II nos. 179, 185, 284, 381. The frequency serves to refute the conjecture of Grégoire and Orgels, 175, that “le nom a dû être donné à bon scient à la mère, au sens réligieux, de ce collège de sept vierges, et nous ne l'avons pas trouvé ailleurs comme nom propre”. Ἀλεξανδρεία, Bosch no. 272; RECAM II nos. 105?, 249, 251; Κλαυδία, very frequent; Ματρῶνα, Bosch no. 231, 332; RECAM II nos. 250, 252, 268, 275?, 277, 336, 345; Ἰουλίττα, Bosch no. 350; RECAM II no. 387.

47 See Julian, , or. VI, 224bGoogle Scholar; Epiphanius, , adv. Haer. XLVII, 398Google Scholar and LXI, 506 (PG 41, 849b, 1040c); Calder, W. M., Anatolian Studies pres. to W. M. Ramsay (1923), 84–6Google Scholar.

48 Basil, , ep. 199 sect. 47 (Courtonne)Google Scholar.

49 MAMA I no. 173 = W. M. Calder, op. cit. 85–6 no. 8.

50 Eusebius, , HE V.16.1Google Scholar; Gibson, E., The “Christians for Christians” Inscriptions of Phrygia (1978), 125Google Scholar.

51 See above all the revealing page of Socrates IV.28, cited by Robert, L., CRAI 1978, 269Google Scholar.

52 See the important article by Calder, W. M., “The Epigraphy of the Anatolian Heresies”, Anatolian Studies pres. to W. M. Ramsay (1923), 59–91Google Scholar.

53 This is clear not only from the distribution of heretical inscriptions, but from texts such as Epiphanius, , adv. Haer. XLVII, 399Google Scholar (PG 41, 849Google Scholar): πληθύνουσι δὴ οὗτοι (the Encratites) .

54 Eusebius, , HE V. 16. 4Google Scholar.

55 Sozomen, , HE V. 12. 4fGoogle Scholar. (Encratites under Julian); VIII. 1. 13 f. (Novatians in the fifth century). There is a good deal more evidence to be gleaned from the Church Fathers in this period.

56 Bosch nos. 289–93, discussed by Foss. 32.

57 de Jerphanion, G., Mél. Univ. St. Joseph 13 (1928), 147–8Google Scholar; Mamboury, E., Ankara Touristique (1934) 71 f.Google Scholar; 62 citing especially Akok, M., Belleten 19 (1955), 310 fGoogle Scholar.

58 Foss, 42 n. 53. For the palatium, see Bosch no. 306, recording that the anonymous honorand (cf. n. 68) κατεσκεύασε καὶ τὴν στεγὴν ἃπασαν τοῦ πρὸ τοῦ παλατίου …

59 Jerphanion, op. cit., no. 63.

60 CIG 9258.

61 Of course churches in Ancyra were dedicated to individual saints as well, for instance to St. Clement and St. Plato. See Foss, 34–5, 53 and 61 for discussion and further references.

62 A distinctive Montanist post; see Gibson, E., The “Christians for Christians” Inscriptions of Phrygia, 136–7Google Scholar, for epigraphic instances from Mendechora in Lydia and from South Phrygia. See also next note.

63 Jerome, , ep. 41.3Google Scholar: “habent enim primos de Pepusa Phrygiae patriarchas, secundos, quos appellant κοινώνους, atque ita in tertium, id est paene ultimum gradum episcopi devolvuntur'. See, too, Grégoire, H., Byzantion 8 (1933), 69–76Google Scholar, on the inscription Alt. v. Hierapolis no. 22, reading ἐπὶ τοῦ ἁγιοτ(άτου) καὶ θεο[φ] (ιλεστάτου) ἀρχιεπισκόπου ἡμῶν κὲ π(ατ)ριάρχ(ου) Γενναίου κτλ.

64 Ehrenber, V., RE XIV, 1911–12Google Scholar; Olbasa inscription is published in BCH I (1877) 335 no.5Google Scholar; I cannot see that AEMO 8 (1844)Google Scholar, no.7 from Burdur has any connection with the cult of Maro.

65 Pausanias I. 4.5; Libanius ep.; See Foss, 46–7.

66 Published in Patrologia Graeca 115, 404 f.; see the comments of Pio Franchi in Studi e Testi 6 (1901), 183Google Scholar.

67 French, David, The Pilgrims' Road, 115Google Scholar (also pp. 18, 25), suggests a site at the Kepekliboğaz, 13 km. south of Ankara. But Dilimnia should lie closer to the two lakes, and Anderson, J. G. C., JHS 19 (1899), 101CrossRefGoogle Scholar, indicated a place called Örencik (Virancik) near Gölbaşı.

68 Bosch no. 306, discussed by Foss, 32, who suggests that it is Constantinian, and, in a forthcoming study, by C. P. Jones, who would date it not before A.D. 400. Lines 6–7 read: -]ον Θεοδότου ἄβατον οὖσαν αὐτὸς κατεσκεύασεν τάς ἐν Διλιμνίᾳ καὶ [ -- ] - κατ]ορθωσάμενος τῆς πόλεως … The restoration τήν ὁδόν at the end of line 5 or the beginning of line 6 seems inescapable, and if the buildings at Dilimnia and some other place are connected with the road, we might conjecture μονάς ( = mansiones, cf. JRS 66 (1976), 127Google Scholar) as the noun linked with the definite article τάς. It appears to be no more than a coincidence that the name of Theodotus occurs here.

69 French, , Pilgrim's Road 34Google Scholar citing the Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon (ed. Festugière, ), I. 3. 5Google Scholar; Foss, 55–6.

70 c. 14: .

71 A full description and documentation in Hepding, H., Attis, Seine Mythen und Sein Kult (1903, repr. 1967), 172 fGoogle Scholar.

72 Civ. Dei. II. 4Google Scholar.

73 The evidence is discussed in full by Waelkens, M., “Pessinonte et le Gallos”, Byzantion 41 (1971), 349–73Google Scholar, esp. 355 f., arguing that the celebration of the Hilaria at Rome and the lavatio in the Arno were taken directly from the rituals at Pessinus.

74 HE IX. 2–4Google Scholar. 1; 5. 1; 11. 5–6; v. PLRE I s.v. Theotecnus.

75 HE IX. 11. 6Google Scholar ἤδη καὶ ἡγεμονίας ἠξίωτο παρὰ Μαξιμίνου.

76 Castritius, H., Studien zu Maximinus Daia (1969), 63–70Google Scholar.

77 HE IX. 9a. 4Google Scholar.

78 HE IX. 2. 1Google Scholar; Millar, F., The Emperor in the Roman World (1977), 445–6Google Scholar.

79 HE IX. 2. 1Google Scholar; Lactantius, , de mort pers. 35Google Scholar.

80 HE IX. 10. 7–12Google Scholar.

81 HE IX. 11. 6Google Scholar.

82 HE IX. 8. 5Google Scholar.

83 HE IX. 3. 1Google Scholar; IX. 7. 12; IX. 9a. 4–6.

84 See in particular c. 20, where Polychronius disguises himself as a rustic and goes into the centre of the city to find out what was happening after the rescue of the bodies had been discovered.

85 Eusebius, , HE VIII. 14. 9Google Scholar; Lactantius, , de mort. pers. 36Google Scholar.

86 Eusebius, , HE IX. 4. 2Google Scholar.

87 c. 26. .

88 HE IX. 7. 1–2Google Scholar; IX. 2. 1; Lactantius, , de mort. pers. 36. 3Google Scholar.

89 HE IX. 7. 3–14Google Scholar (from Tyre).

90 CIL III 12132Google Scholar; OGIS no. 569; Grégoire, H., Recueil des inscriptions grecques chrétiennes d'Asie Mineure I (1922) no. 282Google Scholar; TAM II. 3. 785Google Scholar; a translation in Stevenson, G. H., A New Eusebius (1957), 292Google Scholar.

91 CIG 2883a; Rehm, A., Didyma II no. 306Google Scholar.

92 SIG 3 no. 900, lines 1–7, 23–5.

93 Ramsay, W. M., Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia I. 2 (1897), 566–7 nos. 467–9Google Scholar; Cumont, F., Catalogue des sculptures et inscriptions antiques (monuments lapidaires) des Musées Royaux du Cinquantenaire (Brussels, 1913), 158–63 no. 136Google Scholar; Grégoire, H., Byzantion 8 (1933), 49–56Google Scholar. For the place of origin see Waelkens, M. in a forthcoming study to be published in Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire religieuse anatoliennes, publiés par le Centre de recherche sur l'Asie antérieure ancienne (Louvain)Google Scholar.

94 MAMA I no. 170.

95 PLRE I s.v. Diogenes 8. For Antioch at this date see Levick, B. M., Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor (1967), 175Google Scholar. Millar, F., The Emperor in the Roman World (1977), 576 n. 58Google Scholar, prefers to date the governorship to 305–6.

96 MAMA I no. 171:

Then two fragmentary lines.

97 Tentatively in JRS 10 (1920), 42–59Google Scholar; more certainly in Anatolian Studies pres. to W. M. Ramsay, 70–1. But see also Wilhelm, A., Griechische Grabinschriften aus Kleinasien, 845 ff.Google Scholar, on these texts.

98 Calder, , JRS 10 (1920), 52–3Google Scholar.

99 The epitaph of Eugenius states that he had become bishop shortly after his release from military service, probably not later than 315, and that he had remained in office for twenty-five years when he made the sarcophagus for himself. This brings us to 340. The verse inscription, which would have been contemporary with the construction of the memorial chapel, would have been inscribed at the same date or more probably later than this. See Calder, , JRS 10 (1920), 51–8Google Scholar, for detailed discussion of the possibilities.

100 But note the dissentient view of de' Cavalieri, Pio Franchi, Studi e Testi 49 (1928), 119 f.Google Scholar, who dates the verse epitaph to 360–80, and argues against identifying the Eugenius of the verse text with M. Iulius Eugenius.

101 Noted by Franchi, , Studi e Testi 6 (1901), 11Google Scholar.

102 c. 1. ἡμεīς λέγομεν [ὡς ἐξ ἀρχῆς σύνοντες τῷ μάρτυρι] (bracketted by Franchi, perhaps unnecessarily) . c. 34 .

103 Grégoire and Orgels, 178–9.

104 Delehaye, 327.

105 Ramsay, A. M., in Ramsay, W. M. (ed.), Studies in the History and Art of the Eastern Roman Provinces, 22 fGoogle Scholar. no. 7.

106 Dörner, F. K., Bericht über eine Reise in Bithynien (1952), 26 no. 36Google Scholar.

107 Thaumat., Gregory, ep. canon. 1 (PG 10, 1020)Google Scholar.

108 A. M. Ramsay, op. cit., 29.

109 See Franchi, , Studi e Testi 6 (1901), 19–24Google Scholar; Studi e Testi 19 (1908), 139 f.Google Scholar, 176.

110 Cf. Nazianz., Gregory, In Julianum I, 76Google Scholar; Socrates, , HE III. 12Google Scholar. The point is also exploited by Franchi, , Studi e Testi 6 (1901), 22–3Google Scholar. See now Scicolone, S., “Le accezioni dell' appellativo “Galilei” in Giuliano”, Aevum 56 (1982), 71–80Google Scholar.