Inscription (2) from Ancyra in honour of Constantine Aug. by his praet. prefect Fl. Constantius
source date: 324/327 AD
edition published: 2020-06-19
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/)

Aeternae Pietatis auctori domino nostro, Constantino Maximo Victori, semper Augusto, Flavius Constantius, vir clarissimus, praefectus praetorio, numini eius semper dicatissimus .

This edition is based on GLIA 02, 330, supplemented by a restitution of Feissel at line 1, who suggested au[ctori], avoiding a superfluous repetition.

“For the promoter of eternal piety, our master Constantinus, the greatest always victorious Augustus, Flavius Constantius, of clarissimus rank, praetorian prefect, everlastingly devoted to his divine numen.”

“Au promoteur de la piété éternelle, notre seigneur Constantin, le plus grand, vainqueur, toujours Auguste, Flavius Constantius, clarissime préfet du prétoire, toujours très dévoué à sa divinité.”

“Al promotore dell’eterna pietà, il nostro signore Costantino, Massimo, Vincitore, sempre Augusto, Flavius Costantius, chiarissimo prefetto del pretorio, sempre devotissimo al suo nume.”

Our second inscription from Ancyra, chiselled on a grey rectangular marble base, was discovered on August 16th 2002 in the garden of the Ilköğretim Okulu primary school in the Ulus quarter. The base is now exhibited in Ankara’s Roman Baths open-air Museum.

The support is damaged: the editors noted that «the top right corner has been cut back in an irregular quadrangular shape when the base was re-used as the anchoring stone for the wooden beam of an olive oil-press … the bottom right corner has also been cut back in a corresponding shape. There is a large trapezoidal slot cut into the top of the right-hand side of the block for attaching a press beam» (GLIA 02, 330).

The editors also noted that the upper part of the inscription was chiselled on a flat surface, prepared with a claw-tooth chisel, while the lower part was roughly dressed: the inscription was cut over an earlier erased text (see GLIA 02, 330).

This monument has the same dedicant, the praetorian prefect Flavius Constantius and addresses the same figure, the emperor Constantine as on the very similar inscription found at Ankara in the second half of 19th century and available in PPRET 12 (with discussion of Fl. Constantius’ career, attested in service between the end of 324 and 327 AD). After this recent discovery, Mitchell and French were able to conjecture, through a comparison of the height of the letters on the monuments (the only recorded data for PPRET 12), that these bases could have had the same dimensions. These monuments were also probably displayed in the same area of Ancyra. The analogous provenance, form and content might well therefore validate Porena’s assumption (Porena 2003, pp. 392-393) that these monuments are surviving examples of a series of dedications decreed by the prefect when he was the only member of the college, maybe in occasion of Constantine’s Vicennalia in 325 AD (cf. critical commentary in PPRET 12).

The prefect evidently wanted to promote the new emperor - the only ruler in the East - exalting his conciliatory will. It is therefore, no surprise that the attributes of pietas and clementia occur in these two dedications (and probably in the whole series if Porena’s assumption is true). The reference to pietas is particularly pertinent given its profound semantic value: it concerns the religious faith of the emperor, his reconciling policy and by extension his pity for his enemies, crucial for his military and political success (see GLIA 02, 330).

French 2003, p. 88, nr. 04 AE 2006, 1473 GLIA 02, 330

French 2003, p. 88, nr. 04 (photo p. 88) GLIA 02, 330 (photo p. 73)

EDCS 39800005 TM 385388

French D., Roman, Late Roman and Byzantine Inscriptions of Ankara: a Selection, Ankara 2003 Mitchell S., French D., The Greek and Latin Inscriptions of Ankara (Ancyra), Vol. II, München 2019 Porena P., Le origini della prefettura del pretorio tardoantica, Roma 2003

v(ir) c(larissimus)

praefectus praetorio