Provenance and location

Ancient city: Iulia Concordia
Modern city: Concordia Sagittaria (Italy)
Province: Venetia et Histria
Diocese: Italiciana
Regional prefecture: Italia Illyricum Africa
Provenance: found in 1873 at Concordia Sagittaria (Venezia), Necropoli di Levante
Current location: Portogruaro (Venezia), Museo Nazionale Concordiese, inv. 246
Ancient location: burial space (Necropoli di Levante – Concordia)

Type and material of the support and text layout

Text category

burial inscription

Latin text

Critical edition

Edition based on Lettich 1983, with different integration at l. 2.

2: praef(ecti): all previous editors (see commentary); Illyr(ici)
3: amici cura / opera: CIL (see commentary)

Translations

English

“Saturninus centenarius, member of the officium of the prefecture of Illyricum of the Dacia Ripensis, buried by a friend (?).”

French

“Saturninus centenarius, membre de l'officium de la préfecture d'Illyricum de Dacia Ripensis, enterré par un ami (?).”

Italian

“Saturninus centenarius, membro dell’officium della prefettura dell’Illirico della Dacia Ripensis, sepolto da un amico (?).”

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

The inscription was carved on the frontal long side of a local limestone sarcophagus, found during the excavation of the “Necropoli del Levante” near Concordia Sagittaria, the ancient Iulia Concordia, and it is now kept in the Museum of Portogruaro (Venezia). The text was first published in 1873 by D. Bertolini and shortly afterwards edited by Th. Mommsen in the second volume of CIL on the Gallia Cisalpina (CIL 05, 08771; cf. ILS 1962; ILCV 0509); more recently, D. Hoffmann (1963, p. 56, nr. 38) and G. Lettich (1983, pp. 54-55, nr. 11) have re-edited the document in their collections of the inscriptions from this ancient cemetery.

The text was chiselled on the main side of the sarcophagus, with the epigraphic field bordered by a frame; the surface is very rough and partly damaged and the script is irregular (Bertolini 1873a, p. 61; Bertolini 1873b, pp. 63-64). The funerary inscription, on 3 lines, records the burial of Saturninus, who had served in the office of the praetorian prefecture of Illyricum with the rank of centenarius. The reading of the last line is problematic: trying to restore the final sequence, Mommsen proposed correcting hore with cura or opera (amici cura / opera sepultus), although such a mistake on the part of the stonecutter is hard to explain (hore is clearly visible on the stone). A solution closer to the chiselled text may be amici{h}ore sepultus, but this comparative form is not attested in any epigraphic text, nor does it seem possible to identify the person who took care of the burial (a … sepultus).

Saturninus is one of the few officials serving in the office of late antique praetorian prefects who is attested in the epigraphic documentation (cf. the funerary inscriptions of Valerianus, cives Dalmata, ex of(f)icio pr(aefecti/aefecturae) pr(a)etorio in CIL 10, 07589 = Le Bohec 1990, p. 122, nr. 40 = Porrà 2002, pp. 179-180, nr. 68 = Floris 2005, pp. 358-360, nr. 21 = EDR 086449, and of Fl. Castinus, singularis off(icii) p(raefecti/raefecturae) p(raetorio) in CIL 06, 08398 = ILCV 0448 = ICUR n.s., 09, 23938 = Di Stefano Manzella 1997, p. 276, nr. 3.5.13 = EDR 100334, cf. PLRE II, Castinus 1, p. 269). The inscription refers to him as a centenarius, an equestrian title that was conferred upon the highest-ranking administrators, after perfectissimi and ducenarii (Jones 1964, pp. 583-584; Lepelley 1986, pp. 238-239). Given the relevance accorded to the principle of seniority for the advancements in their careers (cf. Stein 1962, 7-30; Jones 1964, pp. 601-602; Kelly 2004, pp. 36-51), Saturninus probably reached the rank of centenarius after a long period of service within the officium. The reference to this office has always been integrated as ex officio praef(ecti) Ill<y>r(ici). However, the missing indication praetorio and the evidence coming from contemporaries legislative texts suggest another solution, that is ex officio praef(ecturae) Ill<y>r(ici), member of the office of the Illyrian prefecture (cf. CTh 08, 04, 17: ... ad officium illustris per Illyricum praefecturae ..., given in late 387-early 388 AD, for the chronology see Porena 2020, pp. 146-147; CTh 08, 04, 30 and CTh 12, 01, 188: ... in foro amplissimae praefecturae Orientis atque Illyrici ..., 436 AD). Rather than a reference to an anonymous prefect of Illyricum, the text would therefore preserve the mention of the prefecture in which Saturninus served. Some problems arise as to the position he held because the indication of the prefecture is followed by the reference to Dacia Ripensis, a province that came under jurisdiction of the same prefecture. Trying to explain the unusual juxtaposition of a prefecture with a single province within the same prefecture, Mommsen cautiously suggested that while in the service in the office of the praetorian prefect of Illyricum, Saturninus had been entrusted with some administrative duties specifically related to Dacia Ripensis (CIL 05, pp. 1059-1060; this hypothesis is accepted by Hoffmann 1963, p. 56 and Lettich 1983, p. 55). Compared to the prefectures of the East and Italy, little is known of the inner workings of the Illyrian office. The financial branch probably had departments that were dedicated to specific areas, but we do know that the numerarii had supervision of whole dioceses and not single provinces (Jones 1964, p. 589). The Notitia Dignitatum listed four numerarii under the jurisdiction of the praetorian prefect of Illyricum, adding that one was entrusted with public works and another with taxation in gold (Not.Dign. Or. 03, 26: numerarii quatuor; in his auri unus, operum alter); presumably the remaining two had responsibility over one diocese each (Dacia and Macedonia). But it is of course possible that the prefecture, especially in the period when it was limited to the dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia, had a section devoted to the province of Dacia Ripensis to better meet the military needs of the area, that was one of only two provinces bordering the Danube (the other being Moesia Prima; see Poulter 2007, pp. 27-41; Whitby 2007, pp. 135-161; Liebeschuetz 2007, pp. 101-134).

It is remarkable that the short epitaph emphasises the geographical area where Saturninus carried out his service. The reference is perhaps due to the fact that the official died outside the prefecture where he had served for a large part of his life. It is not clear why Saturninus was in Concordia. Neither the text of the inscription, nor the cemetery itself allow us to ascertain the precise date of the burial. The discovery of a large number of epitaphs of soldiers, most of them serving in comitatenses units, led Hoffmann to associate the necropolis with the presence of Theodosius’ army in northern Italy after defeating Eugenius and Arbogaste in 394 AD. According to this scholar, Saturninus also joined the expedition of Theodosius (Hoffmann 1963, pp. 25, 56). However, other elements such as references in the inscriptions to the families of the soldiers, the advanced age of some of them, the indications that some sepulchres were purchased by the deceased, while still alive, indicate a broader chronology for the stationing of military units at Iulia Concordia and their use of this cemetery (see Tomlin 1972, pp. 269-272; Lettich 1982, pp. 67-77; Cracco Ruggini 1987, pp. 75-78; Vannesse 2010, pp. 252-262). Nor can Saturninus, a civil official, be linked with certainty to the troops stationed in the area. The date of his burial can therefore only be established on the basis of the chronology of this cemetery. After an initial use of the site during the High-Empire, the necropolis appears to undergo two late-antique phases: the first at the beginning of the 4th Century and a second that stretches from the 360’s-370’s AD (one of the termini a quo is offered by the reuse of an inscription of the emperor Julian, PPRET 49, as the lid of a tomb) to the middle of the 5th Century AD (see Lettich 1983, pp. 17-31). Like most of the material found at Concordia, the sarcophagus of Saturninus belongs to the latter phase. We know that an autonomous prefecture of Illyricum, after the previous periods under Constantine (cf. PPRET 10, 16) and Constans and Constantius II (cf. PPRET 32, 33, 45, 47, 48, 49), was recreated around the time of the battle of Adrianople, possibly already after the death of Valentinian I (see PPRET 70; cf. PPRET 59, 60, 61 and Porena 2020, pp. 143-166). This date roughly matches the terminus post quem already offered by the chronology of the cemetery. From 395 AD onwards the prefecture of Illyricum, limited to the dioceses of Macedonia and Dacia, was permanently under the control of the eastern part of the Empire (see Mazzarino 1942 = 1990, pp. 7-57; Demougeot 1981, pp. 229-253). Despite the lack of firm evidence, the little that we do have - i.e. the extended length of Saturninus’ service attaining the rank of centenarius, together with the reference to an appointment in the province of Dacia Ripensis - suggests a date for his burial in this later period.

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Praetorian prefects and epigraphic habit