Social:Armazi stele of Serapit

Armazi stele of Serapit
Material	Stone
Writing	Ancient Greek and Aramaic
Created	150 AD
Discovered	1940
Place	Armazi
Present location	Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi

The Armazi stele of Serapit (Georgian: სერაფიტას არმაზის სტელა) or Armazi bilingual (Georgian: არმაზის ბილინგვა) is a funerary stele with bilingual inscriptions written in Ancient Greek and Armazic, a local idiom of Aramaic, found in 1940, at Armazi, near Mtskheta, in the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Iberia. The stele memorialises a short-lived Georgian princess named Serapit. The inscriptions mention Georgian monarchs, Pharnavaz I of Iberia and Pharasmanes II of Iberia, and other members of aristocracy. The inscriptions are dated 150 AD.

Inscriptions

Ancient Greek inscription

“ Serapeitis, daughter of Zeouach the Younger, pitiaxes, wife of Iodmanganos, son of Publicius Agrippa, pitiaxes, who won many battles as epitropos of the great king of the Iberians, Xepharnougos. She died, younger than twenty-one years, who had inimitable beauty. ”

Aramaic inscription

“ I am Serapit, daughter of Zewah the Younger, pitiaxes of King Pharasmanes, wife of Yodmangan the victorious and winner of many victories, master of the court of King Xepharnougos and the son of Agrippa, master of the court of King Pharasmanes, victorious over the mighty, which Pharnavaz could not accomplish. Serapit was so fine and beautiful that no one was her equal in beauty. And she died in her twenty-first year. ”

Bibliography

• Stephen H. Rapp Jr (2014) The Sasanian World through Georgian Eyes: Caucasia and the Iranian Commonwealth in Late Antique Georgian Literature
• David Marshall Lang (1966) Landmarks in Georgian Literature

Further reading

• Giorgi Tsereteli (1942) Armazi Bilingual, XIII, Tbilisi
• Akaki Shanidze (1941) Bilinguals from Armazi, V. II, Tbilisi
• Simon Kaukhchishvili (1941) Greek inscriptions of Armazi, V. II, Tbilisi