[175] Antioch was a city of great importance in the history of Central Asia Minor and in the development of Anatolian Christianity. It was long the guiding centre of Roman policy over a wide range of lands; and thus it became a home for the kings of neighbouring countries, as these were incorporated in the Province Galatia. In the beginning of the first century the son of King Tarcondimotus Philopator of Cilicia was buried there. 1 Soon afterwards Queen Tryphaena, well known as the protector of Thekia, settled in Antioch, when her son deprived her of her power in Pontus. Roman policy maintained these royal families, as British policy has treated the families of Indian princes.

In the third century Antioch was still a centre of Imperial opposition to the new faith.

[176] One of the most interesting and most obscure parts of history is the last struggle between Christianity and the moribund paganism of the Roman Empire between 250 and 315. The ancient authorities are not merely scanty, but also one-sided and strongly prejudiced; and the current of opinion in modern times ran rather strongly against them, until the recent discovery of evidence confirmed the main facts that they record. I remember well the change that was produced about the trustworthiness of Eusebius, the chief authority on the subject, in the mind of a great historian, when an inscription was found in Lycia giving the exact contemporary registration of facts about which in conversation he had professed doubts so strong as to amount almost to a condemnation of the Church historian as untrustworthy.

The story of the burning of an entire city in Phrygia during Diocletian's persecution because its whole population from the highest to the lowest were Christians, though once derided as a pure invention or at least a gross exaggeration, would now be doubted by few who study that [177] period of history; and I have given reasons for thinking that we can guess the name of the city which was destroyed. 2 In a recent book I collected a few of the other newly-found documents bearing on this subject, 3 especially those which showed the nature both of the popular movement and the governmentally engineered revival of paganism, and the tendency to clothe it in Christian forms. I mentioned there briefly the view which is stated and supported at considerable length in an earlier book, 4 that about A.D. 250 to 315 there existed on the estates which had once belonged to the god of Pisidian Antioch and which had been the property of the Roman Emperors from 25 B.C. onwards, an association or brotherhood called Tekmoreian, bound together in the worship of the Emperor and the old native religion for the purpose, among other things (such as occasional hieratic common meals), of resisting the new religion.

[178] Such associations were extremely common in pagan life, and were a special feature of Anatolian society in all periods. 5 There are some special features about this Antiochian society, the Tekmoreian Guest-friends: one is that it was of so wide-stretching character, as if it aimed at being universal, the other that its members recognized one another by a Tekmor or secret sign.

The most striking detail on which my argument rested was a strange participle of an otherwise unknown Greek verb, viz. {tekmoreusas}. I argued that this word {tekmoreuein} must have been an invention of the period and place where it was found, because it was non-Greek in character, and that in view of the circumstances then reigning on imperial estates in Galatic Phrygia this newly-coined word must have been connected with the anti-Christian revival, and denoted an enforced compliance with the ceremonies of the association. The term and the custom connected with it were, in that case, [179] comparable to the certificates of compliance with pagan religious regulations which were given to recanting Christians in Egypt, as the discovery of some certificates has now conclusively proved.

The weak point of this theory lay in the isolated character of the word {tekmoreusas}. It occurred only once in an inscription in letters so faint that other copyists had not deciphered the word. There was room for justifiable suspicion that an error had been made by the copyist or by the engraver: the latter made several other mistakes in the same inscription.

Another criticism to which the theory that I proposed was open, and which was stated in letters and conversation by friends, was that the verb {tekmoreueiv}, admitting its real existence, ought to mean "serve as an official in the Tekmoreian association”.

To those criticisms no answer was possible. They had a certain strength and foundation. There was nothing to do but wait for the discovery of further evidence. The soil of Asia Minor is inexhaustible for the archaeologist: [180] the evidence is there to clear up every difficulty and answer every question: all that is wanted is patient work with time and money, and properly trained and experienced scholars.

In 1911 we had the opportunity of spending eight days in or near Antioch, with many advantages for exploration; and we obtained results quite beyond my hopes. So far as concerns the religion of Antioch the report of our discoveries will soon be published by Miss M. M. Hardie, and the inscriptions of the city by Mr. Calder.

Many doubts have now been dissipated by the discoveries of 1911. The participle {tekmoreusas} is attested by more than a dozen votive inscriptions. We were so fortunate as to find the ancient holy place of Men, the god of Antioch, a great altar on the top of a mountain, open to the sky (as suits the situation), and surrounded by a wall enclosing the “holy place". The inscriptions belong to the late Roman period, towards A.D. 300; and it must now be taken as a fact from which discussion must start that this verb, hitherto unknown in Greek, came [181] into common use in and near Pisidian Antioch at the time of the pagan revival.

It must also be remembered that in Antioch the anti-Christian movement was specially strong, under the governor Valerius Diogenes, as we gather from the epitaph of Bishop Eugenius of Laodiceia (recently discussed at some length by Mr. Calder and myself, and by several German and French writers). 6 The date of Valerius Diogenes's rule is now fixed by several authorities : his tenure of office lasted after the victory of Constantine (as is proved by a dedication to that emperor which we copied at Antioch this year, and which could not be erected until peace was concluded between Licinius and Constantine in 314, perhaps not until 324). His government had begun before the banishment of the Empress Valeria in 311. 7 He was the agent of Maximin's persecution.

The wall of the precinct was covered, on at least one side, with votive inscriptions, of which we excavated and copied about seventy: among [182] these about thirteen contain the participle in question. The following examples may be quoted here, as throwing light on the meaning of the term.

(1) L., son of Antonius, and Antonius brother and Maxim~ sister with children and foster-children (i.e., foundlings ?) 8 having all gone through the ceremony (or performed the act) of tekoreuein (paid) to Men Askaêenos 9 a vow.

(2) Fl (avius) Ci (ncius?) Hilaris? having performed the ceremony of tekrnoreuein with wife and child (paid) to Men Askaenos a vow. 10

[183] (3) Gaius Vettius Umbricianus Maximus with Gaius his cousin having performed the ceremony of tekmoreuein (paid) to Men Askaênos a vow. 11

(4) [Hy]acinthos, son of [Mn]esithe[os], having both performed the ceremony of tekmoreuein, [to Men Askaenos a vow]. 12

(5) Quintius to Men a vow, living in error, performing the ceremony of tekmoreuein with wife and children. 13

Three or four of these inscriptions show that the word tekmoreuein does not refer to the holding of any office, whether in a society or in the city. Here groups of persons, and even a large family of brothers, sisters, children, and freedmen or foster-children, perform the act called tekmoreuein together.

Moreover, the name of the president of the Tekmoreian Association is now known; he was [184] styled protanaklites (as we have discovered from several inscriptions), 14 i.e. "he who reclines first at the table". The principal ceremony of the Associations was a sacred meal of religious character; and, if we may judge from the large subscriptions raised to defray expenses, the meal was celebrated frequently, and not merely once a year. In attempting to restore, detail by detail, the features of that remarkable pagan revival, I have often had occasion to point out that in many points it modelled itself on the acts and used the words of the Christians whom it was trying to crush. 15 This whole subject needs further elucidation, and is of the deepest historical interest. The title " who reclines first at the table" might easily, though not necessarily, be understood as an imitation of the Eucharist or the Agape; but, of course, the religious feast was a characteristic feature of pagan societies in all ages. On the sign in [185] the Christian Church, used by travellers visiting strange congregations, see "Pauline and Other Studies," page 402.

The last dedication brings the act within the range of confessional and expiatory inscriptions, which were a remarkable feature of Anatolian religion. The popular name of these inscriptions was exemplaria: 16 "the authors are presented to the readers as having approached the hieron or engaged in the service of the deity" (or neglected the proper service), " while polluted with some physical or moral impurity . . . they confess and acknowledge their fault: they appease the god by sacrifice and expiation. 17 In the dedication now before us the act of tekmoreusis (to coin another word) is stated to arise not from a single act of sin-for in that [186] case the aorist would have been used-but from a course or life of sin-as indicated by the present participle.

In the fourth inscription the name Mnesitheos probably belongs to a Christian. In another [Ire]naeus, a favourite Christian name, probably occurs.

The documents now discovered do not prove the truth of my theory that tekmoreuein indicated recantation of Christianity under persecution; but they raise it from the rank of an hypothesis, based on a single occurrence in a badly engraved inscription of a verb otherwise unknown, to be the possible or probable explanation of a verb commonly used at a centre of anti-Christian feeling in the time when that feeling was strongest; and they set aside as impossible certain other explanations which had been suggested. The third inscription is the least favourable to my view, as it might possibly belong to an earlier period than the pagan revival; but on the other hand, it is quite suitable to the persecution of Decius, when the pagan revival had certainly begun. The other inscriptions are all indubit- [187] ably of the Decian or post-Decian period, and some are certainly as late as A.D. 300 - 315.

A subject so interesting as this deserves further investigation; the little sanctuary and its adjuncts ought to be wholly cleared.

The continuous importance of Antioch in Imperial and Christian history has escaped notice, because the city produced no great writer, no prominent historical figure, and no Christian leader; but it is a fact that has its bearing on the Galatian question.

FOOTNOTES:

1 This we learned in 1911 from an inscription.

2 "Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia," ii. p.505 ff.

3 "Pauline and Other Studies," No. IV.

4 "Studies in the Eastern Roman Provinces," see the last paper on "An Anti-Christian Society in the Empire".

5 "Studies in the Eastern Provinces," p. 318 ; "Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia," i. p. 97, ii. pp. 359, 630.

6 "Expositor," 1909 and 1910, Monsignor Batiffol in Paris, Professor A. Wilhelm, Cavalieri, and others.

7 "Luke the Physician and Other Studies," pp. 344 - 5.

8 On {threptoi (threpta, themmata)} and foundlings in the early Church, see the long discussion in "Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia," ii. p. 545 f.,and authors there quoted.

9 {L. Antôniou kai Antônios adelphos kai Mazsima adelphê meta teknôn kai threptôn tekmoreusantes Mêni euxên}. It is not easy to explain why the oldest brother should be indicated only by an initial. It is perhaps an ignorant way of expressing in Greek the Latin form L. Antonius L. F. The other brother Antonius must in that case have had a different praenomen. This inscription, which is on a marble tablet, let into a niche cut in the wall of the holy precinct, is not earlier than A.D. 300, to judge from the lettering.

10 {Ki. Eiliras} (engraver's error) {tekmo[r]eusas meta gunaikos kai teknou Mêni Askaênô euxên}. Many of the inscriptions are hard to read.

11 {G. Ouettios Oumbrikianos Maxsimos meta Gaiou anepsiou tekmoreusantes Mêni Askaêô euxên}. This inscription can hardly be later than the persecution of Decius, A.D. 250.

12 {Uakinthos Mêsitheou tekmoreusas [Mêni euxên]}: names imperfect, as indicated above.

13 {Kuntis Mênieuxên, amartanôn, tekmoreusas meta gunaikos kai teknôn}.

14 It should be read in one inscription, "Studies in the Eastern Provinces," p. 339, No. 1"', 1. 5, where I conjectured Protas son of Anaklitos. Read {prôtanaklitou Erm[odôrou ?]}. One expects {para-}, or {kata-}, not {ana-klitês}.

15 '"Pauline and Other Studies," No. IV.

16 The word exemplarion in Greek in the letters of Ignatius used to be quoted as a proof that the letters were a later forgery ; but some exemplaria show the word in familiar use among very uneducated people in south-western Phrygia during the second century. The word does not occur in the known Antiochian inscriptions of the third and fourth centuries.

17 Quoted from "Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia," i. p. 134 f. Examples of the inscriptions, ibid. p. 149 ff.