Unnumbered pageScan 28 of 97
Continued from scan 27
… to his guarding a city, for a similar scene is placed under the words, CIVITAS RAVENNA, in the basilica of St. Apollinare Nuovo. This collocation is probably not fortuitous, for in the Mausoleum of Galla Placida above the door of the principal entrance was the following inscription, Te vincente tuis pedibus calcata per aevum Germanae mortis crimina saeva tacent.
If, elsewhere, Christ's guarding a city is associated with the killing of the monster or monsters, it may reasonably be so connected in our inscription. Indeed, this juxtaposition of the two may well be, also, related to the order of certain prayers in the rite of the blessing of the waters. The prayer [handwritten: ὑπὲρ τοῦ ξυμπολεμῆσαι καὶ ὑποταχθῆναι ὑπὸ τοὺς ... τῆς ποίωνς ταύτης καὶ σταγὸς πόλεως] was immediately followed by that ὑπὲρ τῆς ποιωνς ταύτης καὶ σταγὸς πόλεως That this joining of the killing of the devil and the guarding of the city was not foreign to the celebration of the blessing of the waters on the island of Cyprus is probably shown by the first inscription from the cistern in Salamis quoted above. [handwritten: 159]
Handwritten: + B(όθη)σον Κ(ύρι)ε Κύριε ὁ θεὸς τὸ ὄνομά σου + τὸ ὄνομά σου
The significant part of the line is [handwritten: τὸ ὄνομά σου.] This refers to Constantine as a conqueror and savior, both physical τοῦτῳ τῷ σωτηρίῳ σήμειῳ ... τὴν πόλιν υἱῶν ἀπὸ ζυγοῦ τοῦ τυράννου σαγηνευθέντα ὀ πλεῖστα 160 and spiritual τοῦτῳ μὲν οὖν τῷ σωτηρίῳ σήμειῳ
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain