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DE DEA SYRIA ET ALIIS DIIS DEABUSQUE the Hatrene Gad

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DE DEA SYRIA ET ALIIS DIIS DEABUSQUE the Hatrene Gad DE DEA SYRIA ET ALIIS DIIS DEABUSQUE A STUDY OF THE VARIETY OF APPEARANCES OF GAD IN ARAMAIC INSCRIPTIONS AND ON SCULPTURES FROM THE NEAR EAST IN THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES AD (PART 2) The Hatrene gad-inscriptions 28 Hatra 58 Remembrance inscription on a marble tablet from Temple VIII at Hatra. Undated. Text after A. Caquot, ‘Nouvelles inscriptions araméennes de Hatra IV' in Syria 32 (1955), p. 261-272. dkyr }d} br kÒy} br {bs} qdm gnd} dy kÒry} l†b wlsnp[yr] Translation: May there be remembered }Ada, son of KaÒya, son of ‘Absa, before the Gad of the fullers, for good and for beautiful. l.3: For the interpretation of kÒry} as ‘fullers', see Aggoula, Inventaire, p. 45. There is a possible mention of a rb kÒr}, ‘chief of the fullers', in a sixth-century BC (?) fragment, written in Official Aramaic, see J. Segal, ‘Five ostraca re-examined' in Maarav 4 (1987), p. 70. From Gerasa we have an inscription from AD 207 on an altar, ded- icated by the members âpò sustématov ârtemeisiakoÕ megálou êpikalouménou t¬n gnaƒéwn, ‘of the organization of the fullers, called “of Great Artemis”', see P.-L. Gatin, ‘Nouvelles inscrip- tions de Gerasa' in Syria 62 (1985), p. 308-310. Aggoula also interprets br kÒy} in l.1 as “un membre de la corporation des foulons”. gnd} dy kÒry} has also been interpreted as the ‘Gad of the camp' or ‘of the soldiers', see DNWSI for references. In Syriac, 28 Part 1 of this study has appeared in OLP 28 (1997), p. 147-166. All the Aramaic inscriptions of Hatra have been, with only a few exceptions, published at least twice. I have not seen the reading and interpretation of the texts by F. Safar and W.I. al-Salihi in the Ara- bic part of Sumer. The two main collections are F. VATTIONI, Le iscrizioni di Hatra (1981) and B. AGGOULA, Inventaire des inscriptions hatréennes (1991), both adopting the same numbering, which is that adopted here. 34 T. KAIZER both ‘camp' (from Latin castra) and ‘fuller' are spelled qÒr}. H. Ingholt's interpretation of the passage as ‘Gad of the Caesars' seems to be less likely, see F. Rosenthal (ed.), An Aramaic hand- book I (1967), p. 46. Caesar and ka⁄sar are usually rendered qsr in the various Aramaic languages. Hatra 74 Remembrance inscription on a marble tile from the South Iwan at Hatra. Undated. Text after A. Caquot, ‘Nouvelles inscriptions araméennes de Hatra IV' in Syria 32 (1955), p. 261-272. qdm mrn wmrtn wbr mryn w}lt wsÌrw dkyr nsry l†b wlsnpyr qdm mrn wgdh wsms wm[---]h wb[---] wsmyt} 5 kwlhwn wbgn mrn {l kwl mn }ns kwlh dl{bwr bgwph wlktwb {lyh m[---] d/rbs Translation: Before our Lord and our Lady and the son of our Lord and our Lady, and before Allat and before SaÌru. May there be remembered NaÒri for good and for beautiful before our Lord and his Gad and Samas and… and… and all the standards. A prayer before our Lord for all those who pass his (= NaÒri's) body and write something in his advantage. l.4: Milik, DFD, p. 402 and Vattioni, Iscrizioni, p. 48, read nsrh, ‘his eagle' instead of gdh. Nevertheless, the form gdh (with no nun) is possible as well in Hatrene Aramaic. See also Aggoula, Inventaire, p. 52: “Cette lecture paraît certaine d'après le fac-similé de F. Safar.” Hoftijzer interprets mrn wgdh as ‘our Lord and the Gad of our Lord' (see also Hatra 125)29. I prefer to interpret ‘his Gad' as ‘the Gad of the dedicator', but any interpretation remains a hypothesis. l.5: For smyt}, ‘standards', see Hatra 235 below. 29 See HOFTIJZER, Religio Aramaica, p. 60, where the author argues that it is striking that this Gad is mentioned separately alongside the deity and therefore probably was wor- shipped separately: “Het opvallende is, dat deze Gad naast de godheid zelfstandig genoemd wordt en dus mogelijk een eigen verering naast de godheid genoot.” DE DEA SYRIA 35 Hatra 79 Honorific inscription on a pedestal (?) from Temple XI at Hatra. Undated30. Published as A. Caquot, ‘Nouvelles inscriptions araméennes de Hatra V' in Syria 40 (1963), p. 1-11. Text after B. Aggoula, Inventaire des inscriptions hatréennes (1991). For a recent discussion of the text with full bibliography, see K. Dijkstra, ‘State and Steppe. The socio-polit- ical implications of Hatra-inscription 79' in JSS 35 (1990), p. 81-98. zky} dgndh {m }lh} br {bdsmy} mlk} d}yqmw lh bbyldh dgnd} dy Ìdyn bh dylhwn yhbrmryn w}lkwd bn} smsbrk 5 br }lkwd br smsbrk br }lkwd w}Ìdw hnw yhbrmryn w}lkwd wbnyhwn wnk[s]yhwn dlbr wlgw bmrn nsr} wbmlkwth wbgnd} d{rb wbsmy} dmskn} wbgndhwn 10 dsn†rwq mlk} wzr{h wbnyhy klhwn dl{lm l} ldbrhn w}ns mn bn} ddhwn bq†yr} m{n} br sn†rwq mlk} dkyrn l{lm b̆r} w{rb w}l Translation: (Sanatruq the king?) the victorious one, whose Gad is among the gods, son of ‘Abdsimia the king, which Yahbarmaren and ’Alkud, sons of Samasberek, son of ’Alkud, son of Samasberek, son of ’Alkud, have erected for him on the birthday of the Gad, for they rejoice at him. Yahbarmaren and ’Alkud and their sons and their possessions ‘outside and inside', trust upon (?) our Lord Nasra and his kingship, and upon the Gad of Arab, and upon the Standard of mskn}, and upon the Gad of king Sanatruq and his posterity and all his sons, that Ma{na, son of king Sanatruq, may never suppress them nor anyone who belongs to them by force. May they be remembered for ever in Hatra and Arab… l.1: According to Teixidor, ‘The kingdom of Adiabene and Hatra' in Berytus 17 (1967), p. 1-11, the passage dgndh {m }lh} implies that 30 The inscription is probably dedicated to king Sanatruq II, who reigned over Hatra until the city's fall in AD 240. 36 T. KAIZER the king must have been dead when the monument was erected. The Aramaic formula would correspond with iuxta deos, the Latin formula used for the consecratio of the Roman emperors after their death. Contra Dijkstra in JSS 35, p. 88-89 (see below). l.3/4:Caquot translates bbyldh dgnd} with ‘en son jour de naissance fortuné'. l.7: Aggoula translates }Ìdw with ‘s'attacher à, se réfugier dans, mettre sa confiance dans'. Dijkstra, p. 85-86, argues that the verb should be interpreted as used in a symbolic way. He states that the ‘grasp- ing of a sacred object' can imply an oath that is sworn, and refers to 1 Kgs. 1:51. Caquot and Vattioni read w}Ìrwhn, ‘their posterity', but in this case one would miss a verb. l.8: Dijkstra argues that bnyhwn is a shorter version of bn} ddhwn (see l.12): ‘whoever belongs to them'. Aggoula translates nkyhwn with ‘leur femmes'. Caquot proposes to read nk[s]yhwn. Its meaning would be, then, ‘their possessions'. l.10: Milik, DFD, p. 358-359 and p. 407, interprets mskn} as a place- name. Dijkstra, p. 83, translates ‘Great Temple', and Aggoula ‘Tente (tabernacle)'. For smy}, ‘standard', see Hatra 235 below. l.12/13: Dijkstra translates these lines as follows: “That no one of the people that belong to them will ever seize Ma'ana, son of king Sanatruq, by force.” He regards Hatra 79 as “a reflection of the ambivalent relationship between city-dwellers and desert-dwellers in existence throughout the ancient Near East” (p. 82). l.14: Dijkstra reads dkyrn l{lm b̆r} w{rb b}b, ‘may they be remembered in Hatra and Arab for ever. In (the month) Ab…', and argues that the final line of the text is missing. Hatra 125 Remembrance inscription on a marble tablet from Iwan VII at Hatra. Undated. Text after A. Caquot, ‘Nouvelles inscriptions araméennes de Hatra VI' in Syria 41 (1964), p. 251-272. bl dkyr {bs} br Ìn} l†b qdm brmryn wgndh {l mn dlsÌqh Translation: Bel! May there be remembered ‘Absa, son of Îana, for good, before the son of our Lord and our Lady, and his Gad. Against all those who harm him. DE DEA SYRIA 37 l.2: qdm brmryn wgndh, ‘before the son of our Lord and our Lady, and his Gad': compare Hatra 74 (see above). Hatra 235 Remembrance inscription written in black ink on a stone tablet from the northern Iwan at Hatra. Undated. Text after B. Aggoula, ‘Remarques sur les inscriptions hatréennes II' in MUSJ 47 (1972) p. 3-80. See also R. Degen, ‘New inscriptions from Hatra' in Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux 23 (1973/4), p. 406-407. mrn wmrtn wbr mryn wsmy} wgd} d{mh qdmykwn slmn br {qb[---] br drsy l†b wlsnpyr ktyb hw ktb} byrÌ tsry Translation: Our Lord and our Lady and the son of our Lord and our Lady, the Standard, and the Gad who is with it. (May there be remem- bered) before you Salman, son of ‘Aqib[---], son of Dersi, for good and for beautiful. This text is written in the month Tesri… l.1: I translate wsmy} wgd} d{mh as ‘the Standard and the Gad who is with it', by which I mean the deity represented by the Standard, but it could also be interpreted as the Standard's own protecting deity. It may be worth quoting here the first lines of CIL III 7591, which show that also the standards of the Roman legions could have their genii: DIS MILITARIBUS GENIO VIRTUTI AQUILAE SANC(tae) SIGNISQUE LEG(ionis)…, ‘to the military deities, to the Genius, to the virtus of the aquila sancta and to the signa of the legion…'.
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