Inscription in honour of Diocletian Aug. from Oescus by two praet. prefects Hannibalianus and Asclepiodotus
source date: 289/291 AD
edition published: 2020-03-27
availability: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)

Imperatori Caesari Caio Aurelio Valerio Diocletiano, Pio, Felici, invicto Augusto, pontifici maximo, Germanico maximo, tribunicia potestate, patri patriae, proconsuli. Afranius Hannibalianus, Iulius Asclepiodotus, viri eminentissimi, praefecti praetorio duo, devoti numini maiestatique eius.

This edition follows the text Porena 2003, p. 107.

(from LSA 366)

“To the emperor Caesar Caius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, Pious, Fortunate, unconquered Augustus, highest priest, greatest victor over the Germans, holder of tribunician power, father of the fatherland, proconsul, Afranius Hannibalianus, Iulius Asclepiodotus, both of eminentissimus rank, praetorian prefects, devoted to his divine spirit and majesty.”

“À l’empereur César Caius Aurelius Valerius Dioclétien, pieux, heureux, invincible Auguste, pontife suprême, le très grand Germanique, revêtu de la puissance tribunicienne, père de la patrie, proconsul, Afranius Hannibalianus et Julius Asclepiodotus, éminentissimes préfets du prétoire, dévoués à sa divinité et à sa majesté.”

“All’imperatore Cesare Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, Pio, Felice Invitto Augusto, pontefice massimo, Germanico massimo, detentore della potestà tribunizia, padre della patria, proconsole, Afranius Hannibalianus, Iulius Asclepiodotus, eminentissimi prefetti del pretorio devoti al nume e alla maestà sue.”

Our inscription is carved within a rectangular limestone block, visibly damaged in the upper right corner and also in the lower one, where the final part of the last three lines of writing is lost. The inscribed field is framed by a moulding, preserved only at top and decorated with a vine-leaf and a lizard (ILBulg 01, 02, pp. 13-14). The roughness of our inscribed field suggests that it had been reused, while on the opposite side of the block there is another inscription (ILBulg 01, 02, nr. 8b; Lungarova 2012, nr. 136b) dedicated by Flavius Zosimus, official of the province of Asia, after having fullfilled the duty of primipilarius, to the deity Liber Pater ca. 75 years after our inscription was made.

This monument was found in 1906 in the military city named Oescus, located 5 km South of the confluence of the Oescus river (from which the city takes its name, today Iskăr) on the Danube. Trajan raised Oescus to the rank of colonia in 106 AD and promoted a number of citizens to the order of equestrians, laying the premises for the development of an active local aristocracy. Oescus represented, from that moment on, an important centre for the roman military élite, as well as for the imperial cult (Ivanov, Ivanov 1998, pp. 205-208; Bottez 2006/2007, p. 134). The military camp of the V Legio Macedonica (already based at Oescus in the Augustan age but then transferred East) was set up here by Aurelianus in 271 AD and thereafter Oescus was fortified with high stone walls. This city was of great military importance along the lower Danubian limes and was connected with the main ancient roads of the province (Ivanov 1987, pp. 159-169).

The monument was decreed in honour of Diocletian by the two praetorian prefects in office at that time: Iulius Asclepiodotus, prefect of Maximianus, and Afranius Hannibalianus, prefect of Diocletian.

Afranius Hannibalianus (PLRE I, Hannibalianus 3, pp. 407-408), probably of oriental origin (Chastagnol 1962, pp. 27-29), belonged to the equestrian order, like Asclepiodotus, and received the same military training of his colleague, consolidated in the military campaigns of Aurelianus, Probus and Carus (Historia Augusta, Prob. 22, 03). The beginning of his military career has also recently been attested in an inscription (AE 2011, 0990; see Kovács, Lőrincz 2011, pp. 259-261) found in Esztergom (Hungary):

I(ovi) O(ptimo) M(aximo) / sac(rum). / M(arcus) A[fra]nius / Hannibal(ianus?) trib(unus) / coh(ortis) I Ulp(iae) / Pan(noniorum) vict(ricis) ter (sic) / v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito).

This text preserved not only his praenomen Marcus, unknown up until that point, but also shows that Hannibalianus completed its militia secunda as tribune of the first cohort of the Ulpia Pannoniorum at Solva (Pannonia Inferior), maybe under Aurelianus or Probus.

Hannibalianus then held the praetorian prefecture under Diocletian, probably from 286 until 293-296 AD: Chastagnol (1989, pp. 167-168) identified the two unnamed clarissimi praetorian prefects of a roman inscription (CIL 06, 01125(p. 4326) = ILS 0619 = LSA 820 = EDR 128711) with Hannibalianus and Asclepiodotus and since they became consuls and so clarissimi only in 292 AD (CLRE, pp. 118-119; cf. Kovács, Németh 2009), it also means that Hannibalianus cumulated prefecture and consulate and that his prefectural office lasted until 293-296 AD. According to Porena (2003, p. 148) Hannibalianus was more probably dismissed around 296 AD, since he became urban prefect in 297 AD.

According to Barnes (1982, pp. 33-34) and Vanderspoel (1999, pp. 404-407) Hannibalianus was very well connected to the imperial Tetrarchic family: his wife Eutropia later went on to marry Maximianus Herculius; Theodora, Eutropia’s and her first husband Hannibalianus’ daughter, married Constantius Caesar, Constantine’s father.

Iulius Asclepiodotus (PLRE I, Asclepiodotus 3, pp. 115-116) most likely belonged to the equestrian order too and underwent a thorough military training, probably with his colleague Hannibalianus. Even if it is difficult to precisely date the beginning and the end of his prefectural mandate, we know that during this office, Asclepiodotus took part in the victorious campaign alongside Constantius Caesar against the usurper Allectus in Britannia in 296 AD (Aur. Vict., Caes. 39, 42; Eutr. 09, 22, 02; Oros., Hist., 07, 25, 06). Asclepiodotus held the office up to that moment and was the praetorian prefect of Maximianus. The latter probably chose him for such a decisive military campaign likely because he was familiar not only with this territory, but also with the army itself. He also became ordinary consul with Hannibalianus in 292 AD.

Several important textual elements allow us to refine, therefore, the chronological limits of our inscription. Porena (2003, pp. 112-120) analyzed the imperial names and titles of Diocletian in the text and noted that: 1) the emperor takes the gentilicium Aurelius, so the inscription must post date 286 AD (see also Stefan 2015 and 2019); 2) the omission of the imperial consulate, suggests that the Dalmatian emperor was probably not consul in office (Diocletian didn't hold the consulate in 286, 288, 289, 291 AD) when the monument was built, otherwise the consulate would certainly have been mentioned.

Since the terminus ante quem of the monument has to be the consulate of the two prefects in 292 AD and taking into account the years in which Diocletian was not consul in charge, Porena (2003, pp. 121-133) suggested that the praetorian prefects celebrated the emperor’s Quinquennalia (November 20th 288-November 20th 289 AD) (about Maximianus’ different anniversaries see Chastagnol 1967). The monument was probably executed in 289 AD, or less likely when Diocletian visited Oescus in 291 AD (cf. Ivanov 1997, p. 553).

ILS 8929 ILBulg. 01, 02, nr. 8a Porena 2003, p. 107 Lungarova 2012, p. 75, nr. 136a

Lungarova 2012, p. 75, nr. 136a

EDCS 11301226 EDH 024880 LSA 366 TM 191207

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v[v(iri)] eemm(inentissimi)

prae[ff(ecti) pr(aetorio duo)]