Azizos, son of Agrippa, moved 3500 km from a village of Kaprozabadaion near Apamea in Syria to Trier in what is now Germany where he died and was buried at the end of the 4th century. Multilingual, multicultural and highly connected Late Antiquity. 1/

His name was of Arabic origin, that of his village of Aramaic, his tombstone in Greek, and he was buried in a predominantly Latin speaking city. What language he spoke we don’t know but Greek is a safe bet. And his case is far from being an exception! 2/

His tombstone was found in what is now the abbey of St Matthias, which in times of Azizos was a necropolis. A church was built there in early 5th century but possibly existed earlier. Was he Christian? We can’t be sure but it’s possible even though he shared a name with a god. 3/

Why did he move? Trier was one of the most important cities of the Empire in the 4th century. For a guy from a small village it must have seemed like a metropolis. But compared to the great Syrian cities it was still a bit of a backwater. But a backwater with access to power. 4/

Emperors resided in Trier and usurpers made it their base. Azizos shared a city with some of the most important figures of the age: Valentinan I, Saint Ambrose (who was born there), Justina, Saint Paulinus and Saint Athanasius of Alexandria who got exiled to Trier. 5/

Where there was power there was work and Azizos, clearly multilingual, might have been drawn to the possibilities offered by an imperial capital. He would not have been the only Syrian there: Eastern Mediterranean communities were common throughout the transalpine provinces. 6/

Inscription evidence shows that your chance of meeting someone from Africa or Asia on the streets of provincial capitals or army camps of late antique Roman Empire in the West every day was actually really big. 7/ https://twitter.com/calthalas/status/890199734203371521

Today the tombstone of Azizos resides in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier. It is a great example of the multicultural and multilingual world of Late Antiquity: a world full of connections, long distance travel and fascinating human experiences. 8/ https://twitter.com/calthalas/status/1350732300825337856