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DISCOVERY 



that there will be a sufficient number of passengers 

 to be carried. And, as a minor consideration for the 

 Empire, this great airship trunk route will call up 

 hundreds of aeroplane routes connecting with the air- 

 ship bases, so that the formation of the airship routes 

 should greatlj- benefit the whole flj-ing world. 



Three Forgotten Phrygian 

 Martyrs 



By W. j\I. Calder 



Ilulme Prufcsaur 0/ Greek and Lecturer in Christian Epigraphy in tlie 

 University of Manchester 



An Early Christian City 



The city of Laodicea Combusta (" Laodicea the 

 Burnt "), so called from the charred volcanic hills 

 which form the most striking feature in its landscape, 

 lay thirty miles north-west of Iconium. That portion 

 of Phrygia formed part of the Roman province Galatia 

 tiU A.D. 295, and was then incorporated in the province 

 Pisidia. This district was the " Phrygian region " of 

 the Acts of the Apostles, and it was evangelised from 

 the Churches founded by the Apostle Paul in its two 

 chief cities, Antioch and Iconium. For the first three 

 centuries of our era, the history of this Laodicea (which 

 must be distinguished from the " lukewarm " city on 

 the Ljxus, whose name has become proverbial as the 

 description of a comfortable and complacent Christi- 

 anity) is practically a blank. The name hardly appears 

 in literature, and Laodicean inscriptions and coins 

 belonging to these centuries are few. But fourth- 

 century Laodicea has provided the epigraphist, and 

 especially the Christian epigraphist, with an unusually- 

 fruitful field of study. In 1888 Ramsay published a 

 collection of early Christian inscriptions from Laodicea 

 (a few of them already published by Hamilton) which, 

 if we except the epitaph of a deacon who held the 

 heresy known as Xovatian. presented no exceptional 

 feature. A second Xovatian epitaph (heretical 

 epitaphs are exceedingly scarce in the early centuries) 

 was copied by the Austrian explorers Heberdey and 

 W'ilhelm as they rode through Laodicea on their return 

 from Cilicia, and published in 1896. Apart from these 

 journeys, the site of Laodicea and its environs were 

 practically neglected until the years 1904-1913, when 

 several visits were paid to them by Ramsay, Callander, 

 and the writer. These visits, year by year, yielded an 

 epigraphical harvest of peculiar interest, and mark 

 Laodicea as a site which will repay further investiga- 

 tion. Some of the results have been published ; others 

 are in course of publication. On the present occasion 



I wiU describe the epitaph of a Laodicean martj'r, now 

 for the first time identified as such, and will refer in 

 passing to two other martjTS of whom the inscriptions 

 of Laodicea have preserved a record. This wiU throw 

 some light on the character of the Great Persecution 

 as it affected Phrygia. The new martyr's epitaph was 

 discussed in a paper read before the Byzantine section 

 of the Congres International des Sciences Historiqucs at 

 Brussels in April 1923 ; it is here described, in complete 

 form, for the first time in print. 



Two Laodicean Martyrs 



The epitaph of Julius Eugenius, Bishop of Laodicea 

 Combusta from about a.d. 315 to about a.d. 340 or 

 later, was discovered in 1908, and has taken rank as 

 one of the most important of early Christian inscrip- 

 tions. Its reference to a forgotten decree of the 

 Emperor Maximinus II, ordering that Christians in 

 the Roman service should be compelled to sacrifice to 

 the statues of the Emperors without the option of 

 resigning their posts, makes it an historical document of 

 major interest ; and it is the only early Christian inscrip- 

 tion so far found in the " Phrygian region " which can be 

 accurately dated. It thus forms the pivot of a chrono- 

 logical arrangement of the documents of this region. 

 Eugenius tells us that he had suffered in the persecu- 

 tion of Maximinus II. while Valerius Diogenes was 

 governor of Pisidia ; that a short time afterwards he 

 had been made Bishop of Laodicea, and that he had 

 been Bishop for twenty-five years when he prepared 

 his tomb. These details enable us to fix the commence- 

 ment of his episcopate and the preparation of his last 

 resting-place within a year or two of the dates given 

 above. When he became Bishop of Laodicea. his 

 principal concern was to " rebuild the church from its 

 foundations " ; and this statement throws a welcome 

 but bj' no means unexpected light on the character of 

 the persecution at Laodicea. A further glimpse of 

 the sufferings of the Laodicean Christians was afforded 

 by the discovery, in 1911, of a second inscription 

 referring to the same Eugenius. This is the dedication, 

 in five elegant elegiac couplets, four of which have been 

 preserved, of a martvrion or memorial chapel which 

 was erected by the Laodicean Christians, towards the 

 close of the fourth century, to hold the relics of Eugenius 

 and his martjTed predecessor Bishop Severus. In this 

 inscription — which, incidentally, informs us that the 

 Laodicean community belonged to the sect of the 

 Saccophori, a sect of teetotalers who used only water in 

 the Eucharist — Severus is described as " the glorious 

 victor in the contest of the Heavenly Father." Such 

 language, at this period, could onty be used of a martyr. 

 Eugenius tells us in his epitaph that he had suffered 

 man}' tortures in the persecution ; the natural inference 



