Provenance and location

Ancient city: Antiochia Syriae
Modern city: Antakya (Turkey)
Province: Syria Coele
Diocese: Oriens
Regional prefecture: Oriens
Provenance: unknown
Current location: roof of Antakya Museum
Ancient location: public space

Type and material of the support and text layout

Text category

Honorary inscription for emperor Constantine II Caesar

Greek text

Critical edition

This edition is based on AE 1985, 0823

4: Φῆλιξ: Chastagnol 1986, p. 271

Translations

English

“To our master, the bravest and most noble Cesar Flavius Claudius Constantinus, the praetorian prefects of clarissimus rank Papius Pacatianus, Flavius Ablabius, Valerius Felix, Annius Tiberianus and Nestorius Timonianus.”

French

(by Feissel 1985, p. 421)

“(En l’honneur de) notre maître Flavius Claudius Constantinus, le très valeureux et très noble César, Papius Pacatianus, Flavius Ablabius, Valerius Felix, Annius Tiberianus, et Nestorius Timonianus, les clarissimes préfets.”

Italian

“Al nostro signore, il valorosissimo e nobilissimo Cesare Flavius Claudius Constantinus, i prefetti del pretorio chiarissimi Papius Pacatianus, Flavius Ablabius, Valerius Felix, Annius Tiberianus e Nestorius Timonianus.”

The inscription and its prefects: critical commentary, updating, overviews

The inscription was found by Feissel on the roof of the Antakya Museum in 1980 and then published in 1985, but the findspot is unfortunately unknown. The slab was originally attached to a statue base, it was reduced on the left lower corner and damaged in the right lower one (but not chiselled away, see Feissel 1985, p. 421). The epigraphic field appears quite complete.

Our monument represents an exceptional discovery because its Greek text, substantially intact and without post-writing interventions, as Feissel soon recognized, is a slightly simplified version in Greek of the Latin Tubernuc inscription (PPRET 17). This inscription is an honorary dedication in Greek to Constantine II Caesar, mirroring the African Latin one and put up by the same college of praetorian prefects listed in the same order. The comparison with the complete text in Greek confirms the existence of a college made up of five praetorian prefects under Constantine and allows us to identify the third missing prefect of the Tubernuc inscription (erased) with Valerius Felix and the previous (also erased) imperial title of Constantine II as nobilissimus Caesar (ἐπιφανέστατον Καίσαρα in our Greek text).

The five names – Pacatianus, Ablabius, Felix, Tiberianus, Timonianus – constitute the complete list of prefects in office at that time. Their names are listed in order of appointment to the prefecture.

Papius Pacatianus (PLRE I, Pacatianus 2, p. 656) was the praeses Sardiniae of the usurper Domitius Alexander, as testified by a milestone found in Carbonia (Sotgiu 1961, nr. 372 = AE 1966, 0169). Then, when the usurper died in 310 AD, he probably fled to Constantine in Gaul. There, he became vicarius Britanniarum in 319 AD (CTh 11, 07, 02; see Porena 2003, pp. 428-430 and 2012, p. 307). Pacatianus is attested as praetorian prefect (maybe of the Italician diocese, see Porena 2003, p. 482) in 332 AD (CTh 03, 05, 04-05) but in these inscriptions he was listed before Ablabius (mentioned for the first time as prefect in 329 AD, see below), suggesting that he held his praetorian prefecture probably in 328 until, at least, 336 AD. He was also awarded with the consulate in 332 AD (CLRE, p. 198-199).

Flavius Ablabius (PLRE I, Ablabius 4, pp. 3-4) was a native of Crete and despite his humble origins, was a capable epigrammatist (Lib., Or. 42, 23). He started his career on the island as officialis praesidis Cretae (see Chausson 2002, pp. 207-208). His cursus honorum before the vicariate of Asia (324-327) is mostly unknown, but a recent survey by Porena (2014, pp. 262-268) demonstrates that Ablabius was vicarius Italiae in May 315 AD. A Constantinian edict (CTh 11, 27, 01) ordered him to dip into state funds in order to help indigent families: the edict’s geographical extension "per omnes civitates Italiae" suggests he may have held the office of vicarius Italiae. Although his early career began in the West, he was already at that time a loyal Constantinian dignitary. Then, as has already been stated, he became vicarius Asiae (324-327 AD) and continued his career in the East, holding the praetorian prefecture of the Eastern diocese between 328 and 336 AD (Porena 2003, pp. 409-415) and the ordinary consulate in 331 AD (CLRE, pp. 196-197).

Ablabius was probably the most influential of Constantine’s prefects: he benefitted from an intimate friendship with the emperor and married a princess of the imperial family around 330 AD (Chausson 2002, p. 216). Such a close and prolonged collaboration with Constantine cost him his life after the latter’s death in 337 AD. A cumbersome presence, Constantius II Augustus had him killed (Eun., VS, 06, 03, 08-13; cf. Burgess 2008).

At the beginning of his career, Valerius Felix (PLRE I, Felix 2, pp. 331-332) was perhaps the governor of Corsica in 318 AD and he likely gained a vicariate in a highly militarized diocese between 320-322 AD (Porena 2012, p. 309). Felix is attested by many Theodosian Constitutions as praetorian prefect from 333 until 336 AD (CTh 03, 30, 05; CTh 12, 01, 021; CTh 13, 04, 01; CTh 13, 05, 06) and some of them mention his residence at Carthage during that appointment. In particular the Constitutiones Sirmondianae (Sirm. 04) provide important evidence of his regional mandate in the African diocese and of a new prefectural prerogative: Felix was ordered to spread the Constantinian edict concerning the conversion of Jews to Christianity in the African diocese entrusted to him (Porena 2003, pp. 431-441). Salway (2007, pp. 1284-1286) disputes the existence of an African regional prefecture at that time, while Vera (2015, pp. 166-167; cf. Vera 2012) argues that this prefecture was already operative under Constantine.

Thus Felix’s name is deleted on the Tubernuc inscription but remains on the one of Antioch. Perhaps the prefect suffered damnatio memoriae after Constantine’s death due to his ties with the emperor, but actually we do not know exactly why it happened (see PPRET 17).

According to the historian Jerome, Annius Tiberianus (PLRE I, Tiberianus 4, pp. 911-912) originated from the region of Betica and was a famous Latin poet (Hier., Vir. Ill. 123; Hier., Chron. a. 336, p. 233 Helm; see Porena 2012, p. 316). He became comes Africae between 325 and 327 AD (CTh 12, 05, 01 and CTh 12, 01, 015), comes Hispaniarum in 332 AD (CI 06, 01, 06) and vicarius Hispaniarum in 335 AD (CTh 03, 05, 06; see Porena 2003, pp. 470-473). Jerome is the only literary source to attest to his praetorian prefecture and places his mandate in Gaul during the last years of Constantine’s reign, 335-336 AD (Hier., Chron. a. 336, p. 233 Helm).

Nestorius Timonianus (PLRE I, p. 915) is not mentioned by any literary source or ancient codes, he only appears in our two parallel dedications. Since he is placed last in the prefectural college list, his appointment must have been later than the others (after 335 AD) and was probably short-lived.

All these prefects erected a series of monuments throughout the empire in honour of Constantine II Caesar, during his Vicennalia (March 1^st 336 AD; see PPRET 17).

Indeed, Tubernuc and Antioch, two of probably many cities where monuments were erected, were clearly different for political, cultural and strategic importance: on the one hand Antioch was a rich commercial capital of the Eastern diocese and seat of the imperial palace, while on the other hand, Tubernuc was a small Roman municipality that was never a capital or imperial residence.

It seems unlikely that the two cities where these inscriptions were found were selected for any particular reason, it seems more probable that the finds are random and that the prefects wanted to celebrate their emperor throughout the whole empire. Another interesting aspect that clearly emerges from the comparison between these two parallel inscriptions is the use of Greek in the Antioch version, making this particular one a unicum among prefectural dedications of the first half of the 4th Century AD (PPRET 01, 02, 08, 09, 17, 22). Given that the praetorian prefecture was the highest level of civil administration and that the latter had always used Latin as its epigraphic language, even in the East, where dedications concerning prefects were written in Latin, not only in cities with a strong Latin epigraphic tradition, such as Ephesus or Ancyra, but also in areas where the municipal epigraphy was almost exclusively in Greek, this is significant. Our inscription thus represents an exception and, according to Feissel, it was written in Greek exclusively for the need to translate into the local language a text already thought and spread simultaneously in Latin in other cities of the empire (see Feissel 2006, p. 105).

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Praetorian prefects and epigraphic habit