Zabagos, son of Tasios.

 

In the western niche of a burial vault in the Kytaion necropolis, we find a drawing of a ship with a man on board, painted with red paint. Above it, there is a cross inside a circle, and alpha and omega (?) below it. The inscription is also painted in red paint between drawn red lines. Grave goods in this burial vault date to the IVth century (Yermolin, Yurochkin 2002; kindly brought to my attention by A. Kulikov). The date (IInd century), proposed by Marti on the basis of palaeography, is incorrect, but the lack of a photograph (including its absence from the album imaginum for CIRB) does not allow us to offer a more precise date.

The form of the second name is not entirely clear. Marti thought that it was a contraction of the name Τάσιον, that is, apparently a masculine name in accusative (cf. SEG 6.830); authors of CIRB considered it an accusative (?) of the feminine name Τάσις (or Τᾶσις — in CIRB, incorrectly Τασῗς), thus suggesting a family burial; finally, Gajdukevich believed that a patronymic Τασίου had been intended, with nu carved by mistake. A new rubbing (Yermolin, Yurochkin 2002) confirms that the latter's hypothesis was correct. Among Christian inscriptions, we know only Τασία (SEG 27.1120). In Syracuse, a Christian name (?), starting with Τασιν- (Strazzula 1897, № 228) is attested. Τασις (sic! editor) as a masculine name (instead of Τάσιος?) is known in Macedonia (SEG 30.594).