Provenance and location

Ancient city: Savaria
Modern city: Szombathely (Hungary)
Province: Pannonia Prima
Diocese: Illyricum
Regional prefecture: Italia Illyricum Africa
Provenance: Szombathely (Hungary), found in 1798 at 27 Koszegi Street, or Gyöngyös Street
Current location: Szombathely (Hungary), Museum of Savaria, depository, inv. 67.10.37
Ancient location: public building

Type and material of the support and text layout

Text category

Building inscription commemorating the founding of the horrea of Savaria

Latin text

Critical edition

Edition based on the text of CIL 03, 04180

2: triumphatoris: Toth 2011, p. 64, nr. 8
4: horr⌜e⌝a deesse coeperun<t>: Toth 2011, p. 64, nr.8
5: haec G(aius) Vulc(anus): Buocz 1963, p. 97
; pra(e)t(orio) et per se coepta: Buocz 1963, p. 97 6: perpet<ua>m: EDH 039981, EDCS 26600353

Translations

English

“In the most peaceful period of our master Constans, Victorious and Triumphant, eternal Augustus, having been provided with the food supplies that were lacking from the warehouses, after the warehouses began to be insufficient for the goods to be stored, the praetorian prefect of clarissimus rank Vulcacius Rufinus dedicated these (warehouses), which were commissioned by him for the perpetual guarantee of the annonary supply.”

French

“Dans la période de parfaite sérénité de notre seigneur Constant, Vainqueur et Triomphateur, toujours Auguste, ayant été approvisionné en nourriture qui manquait dans les entrepôts, après que les entrepôts aient commencé à ne plus suffire pour ce qui doit être conservé, le préfet du prétoire clarissime Vulcacius Rufinus a dédié ces (entrepôts) commandés par lui à la garantie perpétuelle de l’approvisionnement annonaire.”

Italian

“Nello stato di grazia del nostro signore Costante, Vincitore e Trionfatore, sempre Augusto, essendo stato provveduto agli approvvigionamenti di viveri che mancavano ai magazzini, dopo che i magazzini iniziarono a non essere più sufficienti per quanto deve essere conservato, il chiarissimo prefetto del pretorio Vulcacius Rufinus dedicò questi (magazzini) da lui commissionati per la perpetua garanzia dell’approvvigionamento annonario.”

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

The epigraphic field of the limestone slab is completely undamaged and is framed by a simple moulding. The inscription upon it celebrates the dedication of new warehouses (horrea) for the military supplies at Savaria (Pannonia Prima) by the praetorian prefect Vulcacius Rufinus (PLRE I, Rufinus 25, pp. 782-783, for his career see PPRET 32).

There are two different versions concerning its findspot in Szombathely (Hungary) and the veracity of either cannot be determined. According to Kresznerics (1806, p. 322, non vidi) the slab was discovered on Gyöngyös Street, in the south-eastern part of the city in June 1798. The object was bought by the pharmacist Pàl Reich and set into the wall of his house in the central square (today Főtér). As Lipp (1873, pp. 33) stated, the inscription was found in 1798 in Kőszegi Street, in the northern part of the city, in the garden of the house of Jozsef Czédler. A pharmacist acquired it and he set the slab into the wall between his house and the pharmacy (central square, Főtér), where it remained until March 17^th 1872, when the new house owner Rudolf Alajos gave the monument to the Epigraphic Collection of the Archaeological Society (Toth 2011, p. 65). Finally, the slab was donated to the Museum of Savaria in 1908, where it is exhibited to this day.

This second inscription concerning Vulcacius Rufinus, together with the first from his house on the Quirinal hill in Rome (PPRET 32), sheds light on how the praetorian prefects controlled the annona. In all likelihood, Rufinus was supervising the supply operations at Sirmium for the armies in the Pannonian region. Among his many responsibilities, the praetorian prefect had to manage the immense logistics of the annona militaris and this text provides unique evidence of how the infrastructure of this system in a northern frontier province had developed (Bodnaruk 2019, pp. 150-151; for prefects' supervision of supply and state warehouses, see Rickman 1971, pp. 183-193; Vera 2008, pp. 323-336; Vera 2018, pp. 61-74; cf. PPRET 88).

Savaria was the administrative centre of Pannonia Prima and boasted an imperial palace. Since the city was situated in a frontier province, it was exposed to external assaults, especially raids and invasions by Quadi and Sarmati. As a result, it was fortified and equipped with storage depots in order to ensure continuous supplies for the troops stationed here and elsewhere (Schrettle 2010, p. 235). A large quantity of imported and locally produced foodstuffs passed through Savaria, whose job it was to coordinate the annona militaris. From here the supplies were taken to the frontier military units and their depots (horrea). The Pannonian city was connected to the Po Valley through an ancient trade route, the Amber Road, which may well have been central to Rufinus’ activity and patronage in Northern Italy (see PPRET 32) with possible grain imports from the Po Valley to Illyricum.

Perhaps an increase in supplies caused a storage crisis rendering the old warehouses inadequate (Rizos 2013, p. 659) or perhaps the praetorian prefect Vulcacius Rufinus was simply asked to increase capacity by the emperor Constans.

The horrea were oblong, gable-roofed buildings divided into aisles by rows of pillars, with raised floors and strong walls that were often buttressed and fortified. These hangar-like military granaries adhere to all the precepts of early Roman architecture (Rizos 2013, pp. 659-660). These structures were the result of a building policy that had as its aim the creation of a complex network of supply dumps. In order to billet troops and protect the hinterland, these military installations required defensive walls with towers and storage buildings (horrea) or even individual watchtowers (burgi) with combined horrea (Schrettle 2010, pp. 235-237). The establishing of a new frontier on the Danube between the reigns of Aurelian and Constantine had led to the creation of several new centres of defence. But it also led to the restoration of old forts or large villae in the rural areas left in ruins, in which many 4th Century horrea have been found (Rizos 2013, pp. 659-671).

One of the additional lines of defence on the Danubian limes was Savaria, however due to the uncertainty of where the inscription was found (the two hypothetical findspots are very distant from each other), it is difficult to identify the precise location of Savaria’s horrea. The plural used in the text suggests the presence of more than one warehouse close to each other, probably in the East of the city, but it is unknown whether they were outside or inside the walls.

Schrettle (2010, p. 238) supposed that in order to economize, Vulcacius Rufinus had the rural villae of Rannersdorf (Noricum Mediterraneum) converted into military depots, since Noricum Mediterraneum was under his jurisdiction. However, the distance between this area and Szombathely is rather large. Recently, the remains of two horrea at Savaria were brought to light (Balázs et alii 2017, pp. 75-111): the first one was found in the eastern part of the city, along the road leading out of Savaria, the second one was outside the southern city walls, between the Amber road and the Iseum (shrine to Isis). Both have only been partially excavated and they cannot be precisely dated. If the correct findspot was indeed Gyöngyös Street (Toth 2011, p. 65), then our inscription could be associated with the first eastern building, but the extant remains do not allow us to identify it with certitude as a horreum. The second structure can be identified as granarium, but it was built mostly with the building material of the demolished shrine and is thus too late in date to be identified with the horrea mentioned in the inscription. Today the warehouses dedicated by Rufinus are still not securely located.

Since the monument does not record the consulate of Vulcacius Rufinus which was held at the same time as the praetorian prefecture in 347 AD (CLRE, pp. 228-229), Migl (1994, p. 115) has argued that the inscription should be dated to before 347 AD, when Rufinus was already praetorian prefect, but before he gained consulate (cf. Balàzs et alii 2017, pp. 75-77; see PPRET 32 for a detailed discussion of Rufinus’ career).

That being said, a reference to a consulate on a building was not at necessity. The terminus post quem remains therefore the beginning of Rufinus’ prefecture in Illyricum. Rufinus was prefect in 346 AD (we can deduce that he was appointed before his consulate from the cursus honorum in CIL 06, 32051 = PPRET 32), but it is unclear whether Illyricum was already under his supervision at this time. In 347 AD Ulpius Limenius is attested as urban and praetorian prefect of Italy (MGH AA 09, Chron. Min. 01, p. 68; PPRET 34) and from that moment on Vulcacius Rufinus appeared in office in Illyricum, before Constans’ death (CI 06, 62, 03, December 349 AD) and after it (Petr. Patr., fr. 16; Epiph., Pan., 71, 01, 05; concerning the usurpation of Vetranio and Rufinus’ role in it, see PPRET 32; probably Rufinus competence was extended over Italy and Africa in 352 AD). Giving the opening reference to the reign of Constans, the terminus ante quem of the inscription from Savaria is January 18^th 350 AD, when the emperor died.

Bibliography

Balàzs P., Bíró S., Csapláros A., Hódi A., Sosztarits O., Horreumok és a gabonafeldolgozás emlékei Savariából, AErt, 142, 2017, 75-111.

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Bodnaruk M., Production of Distinction: the Representation of Senatorial Elites in the Later Roman Empire, 306-395, PhD Diss. Central European University, Budapest 2019.

Buocz T.P., A Szombathelyi Savaria Múzeum kőtára (VII), A Savaria Muzeum Közleményei, 26, 1963, 91-102.

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Migl J., Die Ordnung der Ämter. Prätorianerpräfektur und Vikariat in der Regionalverwaltung des Römischen Reiches von Konstantin bis zur Valentinianischen Dynastie, Frankfurt 1994.

Rickman G., Roman Granaries and Store Buildings, Cambridge 1971.

Rizos E., Centres of the Late Roman Military Supply Network in the Balkans: a Survey of Horrea, JRGZ, 60, 2013, 659-696.

Schrettle B., Balneum, Horreum, Granarium - zur Interpretation eines Gebäudes in Rannersdorf (Steiermark), AKB, 40, 2010, 227-241.

Toth E., A savariai insularendszer rekonstrukciója, AErt, 98, 1971, 143-169.

Toth E., Lapidarium Savariense: Savaria Római Feliratos kőemlékei, Szombathely 2011.

Vera D., Gli horrea frumentari dell'Italia tardoantica: tipi, funzioni, personale, MEFRA, 120, 2008, 323-336 (= Id., Fisco, annona, mercato. Studi sul tardo impero romano, Bari 2020, 225-243).

Vera D., Horrea e trasporti annonari in Africa e a Roma fra Costantino e Genserico: una complessa organizzazione integrata, in Chankowski V., Lafon X., Virlouvet C. (éd.), Entrepôts et circuits de distribution en Méditerranée antique, Athènes 2018, 61-74 (= Vera D., Fisco, annona, mercato. Studi sul tardo impero romano, Bari 2020, 419-430).

Praetorian prefects and epigraphic habit