Provenance and location

Ancient city: Antiochia Pisidiae
Modern city: Yalvaç (Turkey)
Province: Pisidia
Diocese: Asiana
Regional prefecture: Oriens
Provenance: Yalvaç, in the wall of the mosque of Kizildja mahalle
Current location: unknown
Ancient location: public space

Type and material of the support and text layout

Text category

Honorary inscription for the praetorian prefect Salutius

Greek text

Critical edition

Edition based on Calder 1912.

Translations

English

“For Saturninius Secundus, of clarissimus rank, former prefect, common saviour and benefactor of all the subjects, the boule of the illustrious metropolis of the Antiocheians.”

French

“A Saturninius Secundus, le clarissime ancien préfet, sauveur commun et bienfaiteur de tous les sujets, la boulè de l’illustre métropole des Antiochens.”

Italian

“A Saturninius Secundus, chiarissimo, ex prefetto, comune salvatore e benefattore di tutti i sudditi, la boulè dell’illustre metropoli degli Antiocheni.”

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

The text was published in 1912 by W.M. Calder in a report on the inscriptions discovered during his expedition of the previous year to the ancient site of Pisidian Antioch, near the modern town of Yalvaç (Yalowadj) in southwestern Turkey (Calder 1912). Our inscription, that was found in the town where it was built in the wall of the mosque of Kizildja mahalle, was «on a large plain block of brownish stone» and records the granting of an honour (a statue) decreed by the boulè to Σατορν(εῖνος) Σεκοῦνδος (Calder 1912, pp. 86-87, nr. 5, facsimile at p. 78 = AE 1914, 0125).

Calder dated the lettering to the middle/second half of the 4th Century and identified the figure being honoured as the homonymous Σεκοῦνδος mentioned in another inscription decreed by the boulè of Antioch (Sterrett 1888, p. 123, nr. 96 = PH 281613: ἡ βουλὴ τ[ὸ]ν Σεκοῦνδον ἐπὶ τῇ στρατηγίᾳ). Because that inscription refers to the στρατηγία of Secundus, Calder thought he was a governor of the late antique province of Pisidia (Calder 1912, pp. 86-87; cf. Levick 1967, pp. 72 with nt. 3, 134). But this identification is unconvincing: the term στρατηγία would be more appropriate for a dedication to a provincial governor of the High Empire or, more probably considering the lack of any indication about the rank of the figure being honoured, to a municipal officer of Antioch (a duumvir according to Ramsay 1899, p. 208; cf. Laniado 2002, pp. 90-92), while the reference in our inscription to the rank of clarissimus and the office, previously held, of ἔπαρχος (l. 2: τὸν λαμπρ(ότατον) ἀπὸ ἐπάρχων), points to a late antique praetorian prefect. They are therefore two different people. Considering the chronology suggested by Calder - on a purely palaeographic basis - the official honoured in our document could be the praetorian prefect of the East Saturninius Secundus Salutius (cf. PLRE I, Secundus 3, pp. 814-816; Rinaldi 1978, p. 129; De Bonfils 1981, p. 165; Olszaniec 2013, p. 356).

An official of Gallic origin, Secundus Salutius was promoted to the praetorian prefecture by the emperor Julian in 361 AD after a long bureaucratic career, slowly rising through the ranks (see PPRET 51; PPRET 50 for his prefecture under Julian). Entrusted with the prefecture of the East, Salutius maintained his position under Julian’s successors until the summer of 365 AD, when he was discharged by the emperor Valens and replaced with Nebridius (PLRE I, Nebridius 1, p. 619; Olszaniec 2013, pp. 289-294). However, he was soon recalled because of the uprising of Procopius and the capture of his successor in Constantinople. Salutius loyally supported Valens and was finally discharged after the defeat of the usurper, some time around the end of 366 AD (in the Spring of the following year, Auxonius is attested in service as prefect of the East: PLRE I, Auxonius 1, pp. 142-143; Lenski 2002, p. 127).

The honorary inscription in Pisidian Antioch refers to Secundus as formerly being a praetorian prefect, without recording the iteration of the office. According to PLRE, the statue was perhaps set up in 365 AD at the end of his first prefecture (PLRE I, p. 816; followed by Rinaldi 1978, p. 129). But considering the very short interval between Secundus’ two tenures (less than three months: he was still in office on July 4^th 365 AD, when CTh 12, 06, 05 was addressed to him, while the beginning of the usurpation of Procopius is dated to September 28^th 365 AD in the Consularia Constantinopolitana, s.a. 365 = MGH AA 09, Chron. Min. 01, p. 240; cf. Schmidt-Hofner 2008 for the chronology of the laws of the emperor Valens to Salutius), it is possible that the honour was decreed after his definitive discharge, that is to say after 366 AD. The reference to the two prefectures may have just been simply omitted in the inscription (the iteration of the office is registered in PPRET 51, dedicated in Trajan’s Forum during or at the end of his second tenure).

As the metropolis of the province, Antioch was the seat of the governor of Pisidia (see Jones 1971, pp. 139-140; Levick 1967, pp. 68-91) but the inscription only mentions the responsibility of the boulè. The text does not express the specific reason for the gratitude of the Antiochian city-council to the former prefect which is praised as «common saviour and benefactor of all the subjects» (an analogous form occurred in PPRET 35 and 58; cf. also PPRET 29, 43, 47). The missing reference to the imperial permission probably means that the honour consisted of a marble statue and not a metal one (see Feissel 1984, pp. 545-558; the need for imperial authorisation was extended to marble statues from 398 onwards: CI 01, 24, 01; cf. PPRET 24, 54, 58, 78).

A last remark on the onomastics of the prefect. In this inscription the official is named Σατορν(εῖνος) Σεκοῦνδος. The same form is found in the inscription from Trajan’s Forum, decreed by the emperors Valentinian and Valens (PPRET 51: Saturninio Secundo) and in the monument that the prefect himself dedicated to Julian in Ancyra (PPRET 50: Saturninius Secundus). This was his official name. The Theodosian Code only registers the cognomen Secundus in the constitutions addressed to him, as in the Amorgos’ copy of the law on iudices pedanei where the emperor addresses the prefect as Secunde parens karissime adque amantissime (PPRET 53). However, the literary sources almost always refer to him as Salutius / Σαλούτιος, or even Σαλούστιος (cf. Seeck 1906, pp. 265-269; Mommsen 1902, pp. 443-446), and this last form (probably his signum) has created among scholars some confusion with a contemporary official, Flavius Sallustius, whose career had many similarities with that of Secundus: Flavius Sallustius too was close to the emperor Julian (they shared the consulship in 363 AD: CLRE, pp. 260-261) and was raised to the praetorian prefecture of Gauls shortly before Secundus received that of the East (see PPRET 54). Both Secundus and Flavius Sallustius were pagans and the authorship of the short treatise “On the Gods and the World” attributed to a Σαλούστιος φιλόσοφος has long been debated. The most recent critics prefer to identify the author of this work with Saturninius Secundus Salutius (Rinaldi 1978; Desnier 1983; Clarke 1998, pp. 347-350; Marcone 2019, pp. 118-123; for the attribution to Flavius Sallustius were Étienne 1963; Chastagnol 1965 = 1994, p. 19; PLRE I, Sallustius 1, p. 796; Petit 1994, pp. 227-228).

Bibliography

Calder W.M., Colonia Caesareia Antiocheia, JRS, 2, 1912, 78-109.

Chastagnol A., Les espagnols dans l’aristocratie gouvernementale à l’époque de Théodose, in Les empereurs romains d’Espagne, Paris 1965, 269-292 (= Id., Aspects de l’antiquité tardive, Roma 1994, 11-42).

Clarke E.C., Communication, Human and Divine: Saloustious Reconsidered, Phronesis, 43, 1998, 326-350.

De Bonfils G., Il comes et quaestor nell’età della dinastia costantiniana, Napoli 1981.

Desnier J.-L., Salutius – Salustius, REA, 85, 1983, 53-65.

Étienne R., Flavius Sallustius et Secundus Salutius, REA, 65, 1963, 104-113.

Feissel D., Notes d’épigraphie chrétienne (VII), BCH, 108, 1984, 545-579.

Jones A.H.M., The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, Oxford 1971 (rev. ed.).

Laniado A., Recherches sur les notables municipaux dans l’Empire Protobyzantin, Paris 2002.

Lenski N., Failure of Empire. Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century A.D., Berkeley-Los Angeles-London 2002.

Levick B., Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor, Oxford 1967.

Marcone A., Giuliano, Roma 2019.

Mommsen Th., Sallustius = Salutius und das Signum, Hermes, 37, 1902, 443-455.

Olszaniec S., Prosopographical Studies on the Court Elite in the Roman Empire (4th Century AD), Toruń 2013.

Petit P., Les fonctionnaires dans l’œuvre de Libanius. Analyse prosopographique, Paris 1994.

Ramsay W.M., A Historical Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, London 1899.

Rinaldi G., Sull’identificazione dell’autore del Περι θεῶν και κόσμου, Koinonia, 2, 1978, 117-152.

Schmidt-Hofner S., Die Regesten der Kaiser Valentinian und Valens in den Jahren 364 bis 375 n. Chr., ZRG, 125, 2008, 498-602.

Seeck O., Die Briefe des Libanius, Leipzig 1906.

Sterrett J.R.S., An Epigraphical Journey in Asia Minor, Boston 1888.

Praetorian prefects and epigraphic habit