Provenance and location

Ancient city: Roma
Modern city: Rome (Italy)
Province: Urbs
Diocese: Italiciana
Regional prefecture: Italia Illyricum Africa
Provenance: Roma, Flavian amphitheatre / Colosseum
Current location: Roma, Colosseum, storeroom I ordine, 441188, 441183
Ancient location: Public space: (Flavian amphitheatre / Colosseum)

Type and material of the support and text layout

Text category

Ownership inscription

Latin text

Critical edition

The text is based on Orlandi 2004.

Translations

English

“...of clarissimus rank...of clarissimus rank...of Virius Nicomachus Flavianus...”

French

“...du clarissime...du clarissime...appartenent à Virius Nicomachus Flavianus...”

Italian

“...del chiarissimo...del chiarissimo...di Virius Nicomachus Flavianus...”

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

The inscription is carved on two white marble slabs that originally crowned the podium in the Flavian amphitheatre. The podium ran along the parapet that divided the seating sectors of the first maenianum, which was reserved for senators (cf. Orlandi 1999a-b). The senators whose names were carved on the slabs were the owners of the seats (loca) in the amphitheatre. As pointed out by Orlandi 2004, since the two slabs are not contiguous they cannot be put together. Neverthless, typological compatibility, paleographic affinity and textual continuity prove that they originally formed a whole.

Eight inscriptions (A-H), though heavily damaged, are partially visible on the two slabs.

First slab:

A: In the upper left corner of the first slab, a meticulously chiseled zone on the stone reveals an inscription, now completely erased.

B: In the lower part of the first slab traces of an erased inscription are visible; only traces at the end are still legible, mentioning the title of clarissimus vir.

C: Another inscription (C) was placed on B. C too was erased later with a rougher technique.

D: the inscription C has been erased and replaced with the final part of a non-erased text (D), which began on the contiguous marble slab on the left, now lost, and of which only the letters V. C. are preserved.

Second slab:

E: In the upper right part of the second slab, small but dense chisel-blows indicate the presence, under F and G, of an older inscription, now completely erased.

F: On the upper right edge of the second slab a partially erased inscription is still visible.

G: the inscription E was erased, and an inscription was engraved on it. The inscription G continues on the first slab.

H: It is likely that the inscription H began on the first slab, but the loss of its upper edge prevents certainty.

As we have seen, very few elements allow us to draw information, since the most part has been almost completely erased or lost. The most complete inscription is G. It gives us part of a name: Virius Nicomachus. Orlandi (2004, p. 485) rightly notes that the only senator having both those names in inscriptions is Virius Nicomachus Flavianus senior (PLRE I, p. 374; Orlandi 2004, pp. 484-487). We can be quite sure that the latter is the famous senator who led a brilliant career during the reign of Theodosius I, who, after taking part in the failed usurpation of Flavius Eugenius in 392 AD, took his own life, two years later. On the basis of this identification, the date of the inscription must be sometime before 394 AD (about Flavianus’ career cf. PPRET 92 and 93). Although Flavianus senior suffered a decree of damnatio memoriae following the defeat in the battle of the river Frigidus, leading to his suicide (he was rehabilitated thirty-seven years after his death in 431 AD, cf. PPRET 93), this podium slab does not appear to have suffered its consequences: either the seat continued to be used by his descendants, or it could have been entirely replaced (for information about his son and grandson cf. PPRET 93). Since inscriptions conferring ownership are essentially private documents, they do not come under the remit of a damnatio memoriae decree (Orlandi 2001, pp. 150-151; Orlandi 2004, p. 487). The inscription in honour of Flavianus senior on the private property of Aurelius Memmius Symmachus on the Caelian Hill also remained intact (PPRET 92) and the statue base dedicated to the senator as vicarius Africae and city patron in Leptis Magna (IRT 475, see PPRET 93) seems to testify that Flavianus did not remain politically inactive in the period between his damnatio memoriae in 394 AD and his official rehabilitation in 431 AD. Orlandi (2013, pp. 81-82) suggests that the survival of the name of Flavianus senior carved on the locum in the amphitheatre can easily be explained by the almost immediate removal of his infamia by Honorius with CTh 15, 14, 11 (a. 395). It seems possible that the name of Flavianus senior in inscriptions carved in the roman amphitheatre or in the Forum of Leptis Magna, when not associated with the offices obtained by Eugenius (a praetorian prefecture and the consulship), could have been preserved and not erased by virtue of Theodosian legislation that avoided infamy.

Bibliography

Orlandi S., I «loca» senatori dell’Anfiteatro Flavio: analisi tecnica e ipotesi ricostruttive, in XI Congresso Internazionale di Epigrafia Greca e Latina (Roma, 18-24 settembre 1997): Atti, Roma 1999, 712-719 .

Orlandi S., Il Colosseo nel V secolo, in Harris W.V. (ed.), The Transformations of Urbs Roma in Late Antiquity, Portsmouth 1999, 249-263.

Orlandi S., Amicizie pericolose. Qualche nota su consoli nominati da usurpatori, in Peachin M. (ed.), Aspects of Friendship in the Graeco-Roman World: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the Seminar für Alte Geschichte, Heidelberg, on 10-11 June, 2000, Portsmouth 2001, 145-154.

Orlandi S., Epigrafia anfiteatrale dell’Occidente romano, VI, Roma: anfiteatri e strutture annesse, con una nuova edizione e commento delle iscrizioni del Colosseo, Roma 2004.

Orlandi S., Alan Cameron and the Use of Epigraphic Sources, in Lizzi Testa R. (ed.), The Strange Death of Pagan Rome. Reflections on a Historiographical Controversy, Turnhout 2013, 71-84.

Praetorian prefects and epigraphic habit