Christer Bruun

A Dedication in 173 CE at Roman Ostia, carried out on the Emperor Antoninus Pius’ dies natalis

Plate 17

At Ostia, the so-called Piazzale delle Corporazioni is famous for the mosaic floors which show the presence, in ancient times, of stalls used by ship-owners (navicularii) from many Mediterranean ports. This large open space behind the theatre of Ostia currently also houses a series of inscribed statue bases.[1]

On the east side of the Piazzale delle Corporazioni close to the northern corner there can today be found an honorific base for a prominent local person, M. Iunius M. f. Faustus (pl. 17, fig. 1). The monument was erected by the ship-owners from North Africa and Sardinia for the patron of the corpus curatorum navium marinarum (the association of superintendents of seagoing ships), as the inscription on the front side states. The local decuriones had allotted space for the monument at public expense (CIL XIV 4142 = ILS 6140). [2]

A short notice recording the inauguration of the monument appears on the left side of the same base and constitutes the reason for the present study. Standard epigraphic corpora reproduce this text in very similar ways. The version printed here, including the restorations of the text, follows the second entry in CIL XIV (CIL XIV 459 = 4142 = ILS 6140):[3]

“Dedicated on the twelfth day before the Kalends of October (= 20 September) in the year when (Cn. Claudius) Severus and (Ti. Claudius) Pompeianus both were consuls for the second time. In charge of the action were P. Aufidius [---]us, M. Clodius Fortu­natianus Pudens, and L. Tadius Fel[ix/icio/icissimus].”

Dessau in CIL XIV 459 restored the last line, although only tentatively (“etiam quae extant rasura temptata sunt”), as [mag. qq.] lustr. I XV. This version of the text is still sometimes cited, and although it has the merit of making sense of what seems to be a number at the end of the line, there is really no foundation for Dessau’s tentative restoration. Clearly, the three men, P. Aufidius, M. Clodius, and L. Tadius, held positions entailing certain responsibilities among the domini of the ships from North Africa, but nothing further is known about them.

A recent personal inspection of the monument reveals that while on most lines the first letter observed by previous scholars is now difficult to see, at the beginning of line 1 the number III can clearly be read, not XII as is commonly claimed (pl. 17, fig. 2). What is not clear is whether the number is complete or whether the stonecutter instead originally wrote IIII, VIII or XIII.

As will become clear, it is of a certain significance how this number might be restored. The Roman practice of choosing significant dates for public dedications constitutes the necessary context here. Walter Snyder and — more recently and on a large scale — Peter Herz have shown how such dedications tended to occur on days of a particular festive or solemn nature. The purpose was undoubtedly to attribute more dignity to the event and to attract a larger crowd from among people who were not tending to their regular work and business on that day. Such days were the Kalendae and Idus of every month, days of religious festivals, and days which celebrated the reigning emperor, the domus Augusta, and the Divi and Divae of the current or past dynasties. Attention was paid especially to thedies natalis and sometimes also to the dies imperii. [4]

Herz’s collection of precisely dated inscriptions shows that of the datesXIII Kal. Octobres, VIII Kal. Octobres, IIII Kal. Octobres, and III Kal. Octobres, only the first and the last dates appear to have been particular in any way.[5] Regarding 29 September ( III Kal. Oct.), Herz suggests the existence of a “Fest des 3. Jh.”, based on the fact that in the period from 211 to 240 CE three inscriptions (from Raetia, Rome, and Pannonia Superior) register the solution of a votum on this day. [6] This is possible, but if the date was significant, the particular reason may have to be sought north of the Alps. The provincial connection may be present also in the inscription from Rome, which was erected by a group ofequites singulares who characterize themselves as cives Batavi sive Thraces adlecti ex provincia Germania inferiori (CIL VI 31162). For the Ostian inscription a better restoration of the date readily presents itself.

The day of XIII Kalendas Octobres or 19 September was thedies natalis of the emperor Pius. [7] Antoninus Pius died in 161 CE, twelve years before the inauguration of the statue of M. Iunius Faustus, but regardless of this interval the hypothesis that the emperor’s dies natalis was chosen for the dedication of the statue is an attractive one. The Romans remembered and venerated their emperors long after their death, as can be seen also in the fact that the man whose statue the base supported, M. Iunius Faustus, was flamen Divi Titi (see n. 2). The emperor Titus, who reigned for only two years, had died some ninety years earlier, in 81 CE.

Herz cites another dedication made on the same day, also dating to after Pius’ death and incidentally addressed Divo Antonino Augusto Pio, from 167 CE (CIL II 5232 = ILS 6898, from Collippo in Lusitania). The evidence for imperial days of significance being recognized and celebrated by posterity decades and even centuries later is massive. The so-called Feriale Duranum calendar, found in the camp of the cohors XX Palmyrenorum at Dura Europos, is the most famous example of this practice.[8] In the present case, the dedication was carried out by individuals who quite likely had ex­perienced the reign of the emperor Pius, and one can also assume that as Ostians they had in various ways been directly affected by imperial decisions and actions in a positive way. So, for instance, to judge from the inscriptions on lead water pipes found at Ostia, the imperial government invested actively in the town’s water distribution during the reign of Antoninus Pius. The evidence consists of inscribed lead pipes carrying the name of the emperor and of various imperial officials. Recent scholarship has shown that these conduits delivered water for public use.[9] Furthermore, Antoninus Pius is known to have completed the great Baths of Neptune begun under Hadrian (CIL XIV 98 = ILS 334). [10]

In sum, there is a compelling reason for restoring the date of the dedication to read [dedicata X]III Kal(endas) Oct(obres). [11] This text can therefore be added to the excep­tionally large number of Ostian inscriptions that record how dedications and other public events were scheduled for a day of public celebration (a dies ferialis or dies festus).[12] When such events took place on days that celebrated the domus Augusta in some way, they are simultaneously proof of imperial loyalty.[13]

Tafel 17