The Priene Calendar Inscription (''IK Priene'' 14) is an inscription in stone recovered at

Priene Priene ( grc, Πριήνη, Priēnē; tr, Prien) was an ancient Greek city of Ionia (and member of the Ionian League) located at the base of an escarpment of Mycale, about north of what was then the course of the Maeander River (now called th ...

(an ancient Greek city, in Western Turkey) that records an edict by Paullus Favius Maximus, proconsul of the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and a decree of the

conventus In Ancient Rome territorial organization, a ''conventus iuridicus'' was the capital city of a subdivision of some provinces (Dalmatia, Hispania, Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either consi ...

of the province accepting the edict from 9 BC. The documents align the provincial calendar with the

Roman calendar The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the dictator Julius Caesar and emperor Augustus in the late 1stcenturyBC and sometim ...

, honouring

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

by making the provincial year began on his birthday. It refers to Augustus' birth using the term "

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

." It is known as the Priene text because it was found on two stones in the marketplace of the ancient town of Priene. Other copies are known from

Apamea Apamea or Apameia ( grc, Απάμεια) is the name of several Hellenistic cities in western Asia, after Apama, the Sogdian wife of Seleucus I Nicator, several of which are also former bishoprics and Catholic titular see. Places called Apamea in ...

and

Eumeneia Eumeneia or Eumenia ( grc, Εὐμένεια) was a town of ancient Phrygia, situated on the river Glaucus, on the road from Dorylaeum to Apameia. It is said to have received its name from Attalus II, who named the town after his brother and prede ...

. The Greek text of the whole inscription has been published several times and the current authoritative edition appears as inscription no. 14 in the Priene volume of the ' series.

Current holding

The calendar inscription of Priene is now in the Bibelhaus Erlebnis Museum in Frankfurt through September 2023, on loan from Berlin Museum.

Reference to "gospel"

The inscription features the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

term , ''evangelion'', meaning "good news," which is the term translated into English as "gospel". The reference occurs in a section of the text recording a speech by the high priest of the conventus, Apollonius of Azania in

Caria Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; tr, Karya) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid- Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined ...

: As exemplified in the Calendar Inscription of Priene, this

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

term was used at the time of the Roman Empire to herald the good news of the arrival of a kingdom - the reign of a king that brought a war to an end, so that all people of the world who surrendered and pledged allegiance to this king would be granted salvation from destruction. The Calendar Inscription of Priene speaks of the birthday of Caesar

as the beginning of the gospel announcing his kingdom, with a Roman decree to start a new calendar system based on the year of Augustus Caesar's birth. Some Christian historians have compared this with the opening of the Gospel of Mark: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." (Mark 1:1 ESV)

References

External links

*Full Greek text: {{cite web , title=IK Priene 14 - PHI Greek Inscriptions , url=https://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/352387 , website=epigraphy.packhum.org Augustus Roman archaeology

Current holding

Reference to "gospel"

See also

References

External links