Politarch Inscription (Vardar Gate, Thessalonica)

Overview

A marble block from the Roman arch that stood over the Via Egnatia at the western entrance of Thessalonica, known locally as the Vardar Gate. Travellers copied the text from 1740 onward; in 1866 a photograph was taken of it in place. When the arch was torn down in 1876, Rev. Peter Crosbie saved the main block; it went to the British consulate and then to the British Museum. A second, narrow block with five more letters was carried off with the rubble and lost in the construction of the harbour quay (acting consul Barker's letter of 1877, quoted by Burton 1898).

The text is a list of officials. It opens with the word ΠΟΛΕΙΤΑΡΧΟΥΝΤΩΝ ('while … were politarchs'), then names six politarchs, the city treasurer (tamias tēs poleōs) and the gymnasiarch. It is not a dedication of a statue, and it does not name an emperor.

Its value for the New Testament is the title. Acts 17:6 and 17:8 call the magistrates of Thessalonica politarchai, a word that is almost absent from literary Greek; this stone and others from Thessalonica show it was the city's real official title.

What the text says (summary)

ΠΟΛΕΙΤΑΡΧΟΥΝΤΩΝ ΣΩΣΙΠΑΤΡΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΚΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΛΟΥΚΙΟΥ ΠΟΝΤΙΟΥ ΣΕΚΟΥΝΔΟΥ ΥΙΟΥ … ΤΑΜΙΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΠΟΛΕΩΣ … ΓΥΜΝΑΣΙΑΡΧΟΥΝΤΟΣ … — 'While politarchs were Sosipatros son of Kleopatra and Lucius Pontius Secundus, son …; [five more names]; … treasurer of the city …; … being gymnasiarch …'Literal translation (this encyclopedia) of the Greek text printed by E. D. Burton, 'The Politarchs', American Journal of Theology 2 (1898) p. 600

What the evidence shows

• The first word is the participle ΠΟΛΕΙΤΑΡΧΟΥΝΤΩΝ, 'being politarchs', spelled with ΕΙ (Burton 1898, 600).
• Six politarchs are listed, then a treasurer of the city and a gymnasiarch (Burton 1898, 600–602; Boeckh's corrigenda).
• Some of the names are Roman (Lucius Pontius Secundus, Aulus Avius Sabinus, Gaius Agilleius Potitus) and some Greek (Sosipatros, Demetrios, Zoilos, Tauros).
• The text carries no date formula.
• The stone was set in the inside face of an arch on the Via Egnatia, the road Paul would have used between Philippi and Thessalonica (Acts 17:1).

Open questions

• Date: Boeckh (CIG 1967, 1833) put it no earlier than Vespasian because he read a 'Flavius Sabinus' in line 3. Burton (AJT 1898, 601–602) shows that reading came from bad early copies (Bimardus, Pococke), not the stone, and argues from the count of politarchs (five under Augustus per the Kalamari Gate text; six in the dated 143 CE text) that it is later than 30 BCE and may be as late as 143 CE. The British Museum dates it to the 2nd century CE; the basis for that date is not confirmed in a published museum record available here.
• How many politarchs in Paul's day? Burton (1898, 627–628) collects a Thessalonica text dated to Augustus' reign with five, and a text of 46 CE with two politarchs that he argues does not come from Thessalonica (it was found in a private courtyard and names no city). Acts gives no number.

Sources

1. E. D. Burton, 'The Politarchs', The American Journal of Theology 2.3 (July 1898) 598–632 link study
2. British Museum, collection object 1877,0511.1 (marble block from the Vardar Gate, Thessalonica) link museum record
3. C. T. Newton, The Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, Part II (London 1883), no. CLXXI link editio princeps
4. C. Rasmussen, 'Politarchs (Acts 17:6, 8): Luke gets it right—as usual!', HolyLandPhotos' Blog, 3 May 2016 link study

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