7 Монетният магистрат Кюрсас и култът към Изида, Сарапис и Анубис в Одесос – нови епиграфски и нумизматични данни

Abstract

Abstract: The subject of the present article is a newly discovered dedicatory inscription of Isis, Sarapis and Anubis (Обр. 1), made by the society of their venerable believers. Some of these admirers are also connected with the coinage – the coin magistrate ΚΥΡΣΑ was the father of one of the initiates – ΗΡΩΝΥΜΟ. Thanks to the parallel between the epigraphic data and the coins, the newly discovered inscription can be dated to the second half of the 2nd c. BC. From the research it can be concluded that somewhere in the outlines of Odessos during the Hellenistic era, maybe in the sacred territory around the today’s oldest active Christian temple in Varna – “The Assumption of the Holy Virgin” Church, or around the place of the newly discovered inscriptions (18 Tsar Ivan Shishman Str.), existed a temple of Isis, Sarapis and Anubis (№ 4 on Карта 1). Moreover, it is very likely that the upright statue of the Great God of Odessos was erected there in the 3rd–2nd centuries BC, and from its creation to be associated with Pluto/Sarapis, because the statue first appears on the Odessos tetradrachms of their own type (Cat. № 6–7, c. 168–167 BC). The new epigraphic and numismatic data confirm the opinion that the Thracians occupied very important positions in Odessos and perhaps had a leading role from the middle of the 2nd century BC until the capture of the city by Rome.