Two Greek Dedications by primipilarii Recently Discovered in Novae *

Plates 12–15

The two statue bases with inscriptions in Greek published below were found in Janu-ary 2014 in the area of the principia of the legio I Italica during preparatory fieldwork preceding the implementation of a conservation and visualisation project in the central zone of the legionary fortress (Pl. 12, Fig. 1). The bases had been thrown into loess pits dug in the former forum militare in late antiquity, probably in the 6^th to 7^th centu-ries.¹ The original placement of the objects cannot be established exactly; neverthe-less, it is nearly certain that they stood in the principia themselves, not far from their find-spot. The inscriptions of the bases make clear that we are dealing with Late An-tique dedications by primipilarii set up after the successful completion of the trans-portation of supplies to the soldiers of legio I Italica. Novae has already yielded nine objects of this kind with inscriptions in either Latin or Greek, dated to the 4^th/first half of the 5^th century.² The two inscriptions published here together with two Latin items increase their number to thirteen.

* The present article grew out of the project 2016/21/B/HS3/00030 of the National Sci-ence Centre of the Republic of Poland. The publication of the inscriptions was prepared solely on the basis of photographs. I would like to thank Tadeusz Sarnowski for inviting me to publish the inscriptions, providing me with all necessary information and documentation, and discuss-ing with me all questions connected with Novae and the institution of pastus militum. I also thank Jerzy Danielewicz (Poznań), Heikki Solin (Helsinki), Mika Kajava (Helsinki) and an anonymous reviewer of my paper for suggestions concerning the reading and interpretation of the inscriptions, and Giovanni Ruffini (New York) for correcting the English of the paper.

1 Three statue bases with inscriptions in Latin, among them two dedications by primipi-larii, were found at the same time and under the same circumstances. The publication of the Latin inscriptions is under preparation by Agniezka Tomas and her collaborators.

2 For a list of these inscriptions, see Łajtar 2013, 109–111. Number 12 of the list — a Greek metric dedication of a statue of Phoibos/Apollo by a single primipilarius whose name is not preserved — was published in Łajtar 2015.

1. Dedication of a statue of Dionysos by Theodoros and Palladios, primipilarii of the province of Hellespont

The object is a slab made of local yellowish sandstone of very bad quality (Pl. 13, Fig. 2). The dimensions of the slab are: height: 123 cm, width: 45.5 cm–55 cm, depth:

24.5–26 cm. The slab is considerably damaged. The upper and the lower corners of its front side are broken off, chippings are visible on many spots, especially in the lower part of the front side at the level of lines 13–14 of the inscription. The back side of the slab is only roughly dressed. The object had at least two stages of use. Originally it was a thick block, which was used horizontally, possibly in a construction. It is with this stage of use that a big tabula ansata executed in carving on the front face is con-nected. At a certain moment the block was turned by 90^° for the purpose of its sec-ondary use as a statue base and the inscription was executed at right angles to the tabula ansata. Finally, the back side of the block was cut off thus giving it the shape of a slab. However, it is possible that cutting off the back side of the block occurred earlier, in connection with its secondary use. The slab is definitely too narrow to be a statue base by itself; it must have been set together with another similar slab in this case. Near the top and the bottom edges of the slab, more or less in mid-width, round holes are visible in the front face. The function of these holes is unknown. The bottom face of the slab has three rectangular holes placed along its longitudinal axis at regular intervals (Pl. 12, Fig. 3). Two similar holes are found on the upper surface close to the front face (Pl. 12, Fig. 4). These rectangular holes are probably connected with the secondary use of the object. They were destined for inserting (wooden?) dowels con-necting the statue base with a plinth (holes in the bottom face) and the statue (holes in the upper face). The first two lines of the inscription are carved across one of the ansae, the rest of the text within the tabula. The inscription is rather clumsily execut-ed. The letters are of uneven height, varying from line to line, the highest being in line 4 (4 cm), the smallest in line 6 (3 cm). Epsilon, sigma, and omega have square forms;

theta and omicron are both square and round. The inscription has numerous ligatures (marked by underlining involved letters in the edition below). Two times the stone-mason abbreviated a noun designating two persons by doubling its initial letter(s): ΔΔ for δ(εσποτῶν δύο) in line 3 and [ΠΠ]ΡΡ for [π]ρ(ιμιπιλάριοι δύο) in line 13. This way of abbreviating is unusual for the Greek scribal practices and is undoubtedly due to the influence of Latin epigraphy.³

3 See Avi-Yonah 1940, 41. According to Avi-Yonah doubling the last preserved letter was used in Greek inscriptions “mostly in connection with imperial titles held by several co-regents”. The earliest example listed by him comes from AD 199.

θεοῦ πρωνοί[ᾳ]

ὑπὲρ νείκης

τῶν δδ(εσποτῶν) ἡμῶν 4 τόνδε τὸν βο-

τρυοκομον Σε- μελήιον κισσο- στεφὴν δίγονον 8 θιασῶν μύστην Θεόδωρος καὶ Παλλάδιος οἱ

τῆς ζ΄ ἰνδ(ικτίωνος) Ἑλ- 12 [λη]σπόντου

[ππ]ρρ(ιμιπιλάριοι) θρέψαν- [τες - - - ] . .

[ - - - Ἰτα]- 16 λικὴν ἀνε-

θήκαμεν.

By the providence of the god, for the victory of our Lords, we, Theodoros and Pal-ladios, primipilarii of (the province of) Hellespont for the seventh indiction, after feeding the First Italic Legion set up this statue of the one who is cultivating grapes (alternatively: the one with grape-like hair), son of Semele, crowned with ivy, twice-born, initiated in thiasoi.

The inscription commemorates the erection of a statue by two primipilarii, Pal-ladios and Theodoros, from the province of Hellespont, which is already known as the supplier of the legio I Italica in Novae.⁴ Interestingly, the primipilarii are qualified as being designated for the seventh indiction, a clear proof of the temporary character of their function, which lasted for one civil year.

The use of the indiction to designate a year has a chronological value. Originally the indiction referred to the periodic reassessment for an agricultural or land tax but started to be used to reference a year in the 320s, initially together with other dating systems such as the consulate, and then, with the middle of the century, also inde-pendently.⁵ This shows that the inscription under consideration, in which the year is designated solely as an indiction, should not be earlier than ca. 350. This supposition is further confirmed by the fact of primipilarii occurring in pairs. At the beginning of the existence of the system of pastus primipilarii, in the first half of the 4^th century, legio I Italica was supplied by only one primipilarius; two primipilarii were probably introduced towards the end of the rule of the Constantinian dynasty, perhaps in

4 See Sarnowski 2005, 224–225, and Łajtar 2013, 109–111.

5 For the introduction and the development of the indictional system on the basis of the Egyptian material, see Bagnall / Worp 2004, 7–21.

nection with the division of the legion in two parts, of which one garrisoned in Novae and the other in Sexaginta Prista (modern Ruse).⁶ On the other hand, the pagan char-acter of the dedication shows that it was likely set up not later than the rule of Theo-dosius the Great, the author of the edict of 392 forbidding pagan cults. Within these theoretic limits, ca. 350–392, the seventh indiction fell on 348/349, 363/364, and 378/379. According to line 3, the inscription was set up when there were two emper-ors reigning together. Such a situation occurred throughout the entire indictional year 348/349, when the Roman Empire was co-ruled by Constantius II and Constans, in the second half of the indictional year 363/364 with Valentinian I and Valens as co-rulers,⁷ and between January 1–19, 379 when the co-emperors were Gratian and Val-entinian II. It looks as if the third possibility is excluded in our case. The period of co-regency of two emperors is very short in the indictional year 378/379. More im-portantly it falls in the middle of winter, when navigation, which undoubtedly was the principal means of transportation between the Hellespont and Novae, was hardly possible because of the dangerous sea. Consequently, our inscription must date either to 348/349 or 363/364 and the latter possibility seems more probable to me.

The statue dedicated by the primipilarii was that of Dionysos.⁸ The name of the god is not mentioned expressis verbis, but his identity is obvious from the epithets ascribed to him. These include: Σεμελήιος, “son of Semele”, κισσοστεφής, “crowned with ivy”, δίγονος, “twice born”, θιασῶν μύστης, “initiated in thiasoi”, and the fifth epithet, mentioned in the first place in the list, the reading of which is not entirely clear, either βοτρυοκόμος, “cultivating grapes”, or βοτρυόκομος, “with the grape-like hair” (see commentary below). It should be stressed that the epithets ascribed to Dio-nysos by the anonymous redactor of the inscription have a clear literary and more precisely poetic overtone. They occur as such throughout the Greek poetry from the great dramatic poetry of the Classical period until Nonnus’ Dionysiaka, and are espe-cially characteristic of hymns, which frequently play with the polyonymity of gods.

Not only the epithet themselves but also the asyndetic style in listing them is common to the hymns. The closest analogies are found in the so-called Orphic hymns, espe-cially hymn 52 addressed to amphietos Bakchos, “an annual Bacchus”, and a strange poem contained in Anthologia Graeca (Anth. Pal. IX 524), which, in alphabetic order, lists as many as ninety-six epithets of Dionysos. Among them are: βοτρυοχαίτης (Anth. Pal. IX 524, 3), δίγονος (Anth. Pal. IX 524, 5), θιασώτης (Anth. Pal. IX 524, 8), κισσοστέφανος (Anth. Pal. IX 524, 11), μύστης (Anth. Pal. IX 524, 13), Σεμεληγενέτης (Anth. Pal. IX 524, 19), and Σεμελεύς (Anth. Pal. IX 524, 19). Some of them are identical to epithets occurring in the inscription discussed here; others are close to them in formal and semantic terms. There is no doubt that the editor of our

6 See Sarnowski 2013, 145.

7 Valens was declared co-ruler by his brother Valentinian on March 28, 364. The new eighth indiction started on September 23, 364 assuming that the indictional year was that of Constantinopolitan type.

8 For a possible reconstruction of the shape of the statue, see above, note 4.

inscription knew the literary tradition concerning Dionysos. One can even venture the statement that he was well aware of hymnic poetry in honour of Dionysos as repre-sented by Orphic Hymns and Anth. Pal. IX 524.

1. The concept of divine providence, θεοῦ (θεία) πρόνοια, was present in antiquity in both pagan, especially Stoic, and Judeo-Christian thought. As far as inscriptions are concerned, however, θεοῦ (θείᾳ) προνοίᾳ is found essentially in the Christian context where it expresses the belief that an event — the death of a man, a construction, a miracle, etc. — took place as a result of God’s intervention in human matters. It nor-mally occurs at the beginning of an inscription as a standard formula, almost a confes-sion of the belief in the omniscience and omnipotence of One God. Pagan attestations of θεοῦ (θείᾳ) προνοίᾳ are extremely rare. As one of a very few examples one can cite I.Kourion 125 (late 2^nd/early 3^rd century) — a dedication to Apollo Hylates by a man who had been saved from an illness θεοῦ προνοίᾳ τε καὶ ἀρετῇ. Another example is IK III 97 (Ilion, between 293 and 305) — a dedication of a silver statue of Asklepios to Athena Ilias by the emperors Diocletian and Maximinus Daia θείᾳ προνοίᾳ τ<ῶ>ν αὐ[τῶ]ν̣ δεσποτῶν ἡμῶν. The pagan use of θεοῦ (θείᾳ) προνοίᾳ as illustrated by these two attestations differ from the Christian one in that it is less formal and more de-scriptive. This is partly due to the anonymity of the formula, which requires additional information about the god, whose identity would otherwise have remained hidden.

The use of the θεοῦ προνοίᾳ formula in our inscription very much resembles the Christian one; however, the dedication must be pagan as shown by the subject of the statue.⁹ Obviously the formulaic language of pagan and Christian inscriptions became more similar in the 4^th century. The god referred to anonymously in the θεοῦ προνοίᾳ formula is likely to have been Dionysos whose statue was set up by the primipilarii Palladios and Theodoros. His divine πρόνοια intervened probably both in the success-ful transportation of the supplies from the province of Hellespont to faraway Novae and the presentation of the statue at the end of the mission. Another possibility is that the Imperial πρόνοια was meant here. This possibility seems less probable to me as the πρόνοια-formula mentions only one god whereas there were two emperors reign-ing together at the moment of the placement of the inscription; one should rather expect θείᾳ προνοίᾳ in that case.

2. The formula ὑπὲρ νείκης (τῶν) δεσπτῶν ἡμῶν as an indication of the reason for setting up the statue is found in another dedication by primipilarii from Novae, dated probably to AD 367/368; cf. Bresson et al. 1995. The anonymous character of this formula suggests that it did not refer to a specific victory won by Emperors but quite generally to the Imperial Victory. Generally, for references to Imperial Victory in inscriptions, see Veyne 1962, 67–68; Dobiáš 1964, 39–40.

9 The possibility of the statue of a pagan god being dedicated by Christians should defi-nitely be ruled out. Christians of Late Antiquity were highly reluctant to dedicate statues of pagan gods considering them to be dwelling place of demons.

4–5. The first epithet of Dionysos is recorded as βοτρυοκομον on the stone. The word βοτρυοκoμος has not been attested so far; however, we know a similar term βοτρυόκοσμος, “decked with grapes”, attested as an epithet of Dionysos in Hymn.

Orph. 52,11. Either the stonemason made a mistake omitting the sigma (thus βοτρυόκσ⟨σ⟩μον), or we are dealing with a new word, either βοτρυοκόμος, “cultivat-ing grapes”, or βοτρυόκομος, “with grape-like hair”. In the first case, the second ele-ment of the composition should be derived from κομέω, “take care of”. An analogy for this composition is the adjective σταχυηκόμος, “cultivating ears of corn”, attested as an epithet of Demeter in Nonnus, Dion. 1.104. In the second case, the second ele-ment should be derived from κόμη, “hair of the head”. Several adjectives of a similar composition are known even if not all of them were used with reference to men or gods. Among them one has: ἱππόκομος, “decked with horsehair”, κυπαρισσόκομος

“with cypress foliage” (cf. P.Oxy. XXXV 2736, fr. 2 (b). 12), οὐλόκομος = οὐλόθριξ,

“with crisp, curly hair; having thick, bushy foliage” (Alexander Rhetor 324.1; He-phaestio Astrologus 2.2), φυλλόκομος, “thick-leaved” (Ar. Av. 742). As far as the meaning is concerned, one can compare the adjective βοτρυοχαίτης, “with clustering hair”, attested as an epithet of Dionysos in Anth. Pal. IX 524, 3.

5–6. The epithet Σεμελήιος, “son of Semele”, occurs in a ritual acclamation of Di-onysos quoted in a scholion to Aristophanes’ Ranae, verse 479: Σεμελήι’ Ἴακχε πλουτοδότα. According to the scholiast the acclamation was pronounced during the feast of Lenaia. The epithet Σεμελήιος is also found in Damascius, In Phaedonem (versio 2), 8, 2 (οὗτος δὲ ἦν ὁ Σεμελήιος Διόνυσος) and in Gregorius Nazianzenus, Carmina quae spectant ad alios, PG XXXVII, p. 1571, line 12 (Βάκχοι τ’ ἀμφὶ γόνον Σεμελήιον οὐρεσιφοῖται). The alphabetic poem Anth. Pal. IX 524 quoted above calls the god Σεμεληγενέτης and Σεμελεύς. Semele was the mortal mother of Dionysos by Zeus according to one version of his myth. According to the other version she was the second bearer of Dionysos, begotten by Zeus of Persephone, after he was destroyed by the Titans.

6–7. The epithet κισσοστεφής for Dionysos is found in Anacreontea 48, 5:

κισσοστεφὴς δὲ κεῖμαι, πατῶ δ’ ἅπαντα θυμῶι. A parallel epithet κισσοστέφανος is ascribed to the god in Anth. Pal. IX 524, 11, a. Dionysos is invoked as κισσοφόρε βακχεῖε in Ar. Thesm. 988, whereas he is qualified as κισσόβρυον and κισσοχαρής in Hymn. Orph. 30, 4 and 52, 6 respectively. He had the epithet κισσοκόμης in Amor-gos, and κισσός in Acharnai; cf. Kern 1903. The god is frequently represented wear-ing the ivy crown as his followers are as well; cf. Eur. Bacch. 81–82: κισσῶι τε στεφανωθεὶς Διόνυσον θεραπεύει.

7. Dionysos was commonly considered as “twice-born” in Greek mythological thought. In one version of his myth he appeared to light first from the womb of Seme-le and then from the heap of Zeus, according to the other, his first bearer was Per-sephone, the second Semele. These mythological ideas found expression in the god’s epithets such as διμήτωρ, διθύραμβος, and δίγονος. The latter is found in Eur. Hipp.

560, and in Anth. Pal. IX 524, 5.

8. As far as I can see the epithet θιασῶν μύστης for Dionysos occurs only here;

however, other epithets alluding to mysteries and thiasoi are found with relation to

him. He is called θιασώτης in Anth. Pal. IX 524, 9, μύστης in Anth. Pal. IX 524, 13 and in Tegea (cf. Kern 1903).

13–14. The verb τρέφω, “to feed”, is used to designate the action of transportation of provision from the supplying province to Novae in the next inscription as well (lines 3–4), in a metric dedication of a statue of Phoibos/Apollo by an unknown primipilarius (Łajtar 2015, 277–282), and in a dedication of a statue of Dionysos by Flavios [ - - - ]anos, primipilarius of the province of Hellespont (Łajtar 2015, 282–

285). In all cases it occurs as a male participle in the aorist active, either singular or plural, depending on the number of primipilarii (either one or two).

14–16. One is tempted to read: λεγιῶ]ν̣α̣ | [πρώτην Ἰτα]|λικὴν. Unfortunately trac-es of two (or three) letters at the end of line 14 do not match this reading.

2. Dedication of a statue by Avianius, a primipilarius

The object is a statue base made of Hotnitza limestone. It has the form of a paral-lelepiped shaft supported by a massive plinth and surmounted with a profiled cornice (Pl. 14, Fig. 5); note that the profile is present only on the front side and is indicated only by grooves on the lateral sides. The total height of the base amounts to 143 cm, of which half (more accurately 73 cm) falls on the shaft and half on the plinth togeth-er with the cornice (35 cm + 35 cm). The plinth is 63.5 cm wide and 40 cm thick; the appropriate dimensions of the cornice are: 60 cm x 40 cm. The shaft is 30 cm thick.

The upper surface of the cornice has six small rectangular holes for inserting statues, arranged in three pairs, two in the front and one behind them. One can suppose that some of them are connected with the original use of the base and some with the sec-ondary one (see below); however, it is unknown which are which. Consequently, it is difficult to attempt a reconstruction of the statue(s) set up by the primipilarii. The only certain thing is that it (they) was (were) made of bronze. The inscription suggests that it (they) might have shown an emperor (emperors). The base was initially in-scribed in Latin. Traces of this original Latin inscription are preserved at the height of line 5 of the later Greek inscription. Three letters can be identified: I at the beginning of the line and SV at its end. Of the later inscription in Greek the two first lines were located on the fillets of the cornice and the rest in the upper part of the shaft (Pl. 15, Fig. 6–7). The Greek inscription was erased at some point, however, not very careful-ly thus allowing a partial reading of the text. Judging by the preserved remnants, the inscription was executed rather clumsily. Letters were 3–4 cm high (slightly larger in the first two lines, slightly smaller in the remaining ones). Epsilon, sigma, and omega were round.

ΕΜ - - - μεγαλοσθενέων βασιλήων Πρώτην Ἰταλικὴν λεγεῶνα θρέ- 4 ψας κατὰ κόσμον ΑΝΘ ̣ΤΟ

̣ΑΡ̣Ι̣ΑΝΟ ̣ ̣ ̣ ̣ΝΙΚΡ ̣ ̣ - - - εὐτυχῶς

[ - - - ] of the mighty kings, NN (erected this statue) after he duly fed the First Ital-ic Legion [ - - - ]. Good luck.

The fragmentary state of preservation of the inscription makes its complete eval-uation impossible. In the primipilarii dedications from Novae the participle θρέψας has been found to designate the action of transporting provisions from the supplying province to the legionaries on the Danube demonstrating¹⁰ that this inscription also belongs to the same group. The singular θρέψας shows that the inscription mentioned only one primipilarius. This suggests a dating at the beginning of the existence of the

Im Dokument Papers of the 3 (Seite 142-152)