Μία παραναγνωσθείσα βυζαντινή επιγραφή στη Σάμο
Part of : Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας ; Vol.42, 2003, pages 45-54
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45-54
Parallel Title:
A Misinterpreted Byzantine Inscription at Samos
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Articles
Abstract:
At close examination the inscription at the castle of Samos, published originally by Alfons Schneider in Athenische Mitteilungen 1929 (Figs 1-3), reads IIYPIOC ΔΕΟΊΟΙΝΙK(OC) and not ΠΥΡΓΟΟ ΔΕΟΙΟΤ(ΟΥ) ΝΙΚ(ΗΦΟΡΟΥ) as previously believed. Also the surviving last two letters of the date are definitely 5 Ζ (i.e. 97 of a year of Creation = 89 of an AD) and not OZ (i.e. 77 of a year of Creation = 69 of an AD) as was also believed previously. Consequently the inscription cannot be connected with the Emperor Nicephoros Phocas (AD 963-969). Since indiction 12 is given along with the date on line 3, the only possible dates are AD 789 and AD 1089, the second one being the likeliest. The adjective δεσποινικος may imply ownership either of Our Lady or of the empress. In the first case there is a strong resemblance with an inscription of Hexamilion in Thrace, published of old, not seen in recent years, and only tentatively ascribed to a church and dated to the thirteenthfourteenth century. The attributions being only tentative its provenance may well be from a castle and its date may not necessarily fall within the above limits. In the second case, i.e. if ownership of the empress is implied, it may be either the Empress Eirene the Athenian (AD 789) or more likely the Queen-Mother Anna Dalassene (AD 1089). A number of imperial chrysobulls and other documents kept in the archives of the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian on the island of Patmos afford detailed information about the granting of lands by the Emperor Alexios I (AD 1081-1118) to the monastery which was originally being founded by Hosios Christodoulos on the island of Cos (later transferred to Patmos). Specifically extensive lands were in the process of being donated by the emperor to the charity of the Monastery of Myrelaion in Constantinople, owned by the Queen-Mother Anna Dalassene, whereupon Anna consented that part of these be donated instead to the Monastery of Hosios Christodoulos. It appears from the relevant documents that it was provided that the respective properties, i.e. that of the charity of the Myrelaion on the one hand and that of the Monastery of Hosios Christodoulos on the other, should be carefully inventoried and that there should be allowed no ground for confusion in the future. The process of handing over the donated lands to the monastery was finally concluded in AD 1089, shortly after the month of April. So a guess may be formulated that Samos was perhaps among the lands that had some time in the past been donated to the charity of the Myrelaion, that it was subsequently not meaned to be passed over to Hosios Christodoulos, and that when the donation to Hosios Christodoulos was finally implemented in 1089, the inscription was set up at Samos, so that no claims might be put forward in the future by the Monastery of Hosios Christodoulos. This is no more than a mere guess. In any case the donation of castles to private or semi-private ownership was a common practice in the eleventh century. Incidentally this was the time when the islands were infested by the incursions of the Seljuk emir Tzachas, and it is likely that the setting up of the inscription coincided with a reconstruction of the castle of the city of Samos by way of defense. The reconstruction of castles at the time is also attested at the islands of Cos and Leros and possibly at Anaia on the Asia Minor littoral just opposite Samos.
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