Reconstructed Epitaph
It now became possible, with the help of the text preserved in the Life, to restore the original text of the epitaph with practical certainty. Certain lacunae, letters effaced or cut off by breaks in the stone, have been the subject of profound discussions, resulting in a text which may henceforth be looked on as settled, which it may be useful to give here.
The capital letters at the beginning and end of the inscription represent the parts found on the inscription of Alexander, the son of Anthony, those of the middle part are the remaining fragments of the epitaph of Abercius, while the small letters give the reading according to the manuscripts of the Life:
The citizen of a chosen city, this I made living, that there I might have in time a resting-place of my body, being by name Abercius, the disciple of a holy shepherd who feeds flocks of sheep on mountains and on plains, who has great eyes that see everywhere. For this taught me book is worthy of belief. And to Rome he sent me to contemplate majesty, and to see a queen golden-robed and golden-sandalled; there also I saw a people bearing a shining mark. And I saw the land of Syria and all cities; Nisibis when I passed over Euphrates. But everywhere I had brethren. I had Paul ... Faith everywhere led me forward, and everywhere provided as my food a fish of exceeding great size, and perfect, which a holy virgin drew with her hands from a fountain and this it ever gives to its friends to eat, it having wine of great virtue, and giving it mingled with bread. These things I, Abercius, having been a witness told to be written here. Verily I was passing through my seventy-second year. He that discerneth these things, every fellow-believer, let him pray for Abercius. And no one shall put another grave over my grave; but if he do, then shall he pay to the treasury of Romans two thousand pieces of gold and to my good native city of Hieropolis one thousand pieces of gold.
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