Greek inscription in elegiac distichs honouring the praet. prefect Antonius Marcellinus from Gortyna (Crete)
source date: 340/342 AD
edition published: 2020-06-13
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/)

Ἑσπερίης πάσης χθονὸς ὄβριμον ἰθυντῆρα
Μαρκελλῖνον ὁρᾶς ἡγεμόνων ταμίην,
Ἑλλάδος ἀγλαὸν ἔρνος, ὃς εὐδικίῃ καὶ ἀρωγῇ
κουφίζων πόλιας θῆκεν ἐλαφροτέρας·
τοὔνεκα καὶ προθύροισι Δίκης ἐπιμάρτυρα θεσμῶν
βουλὴ καὶ Πύρρου στῆσεν ἐφημοσύνη.

This inscription is based on Tantillo 2012, p. 421.

“You see the mighty ruler of the whole land Hesperia, Marcellinus, the giver of governors, the shining offshoot of Hellas, who relieving them with his justice and his help unburdened the cities of their dues; for this reason, even in front of the doors of Dike, witness to the laws, the Council and the will of Pyrrhus set this up.”

“Tu vois le puissant régissant de toute la terre d’Hesperie, Marcellinus, dispensateur des gouverneurs, splendide rejeton de l’Hellade, qui, soulageant les cites par sa bonne justice et son aide, les a allégées. Pour cette raison le Conseil et l’ordre de Pyrrhos ont érigé (ce monument) devant les Portes de la Justice comme témoin des Lois.”

(Tantillo 2012, p. 421)

“Vedi qui il potente reggitore dell’intera terra Esperia, Marcellino, dispensatore di governatori, illustre germoglio dell’Ellade, il quale, alleviando le città colla sua rettitudine e con il suo soccorso, le ha alleggerite (del loro carico). Per tal ragione, anche di fronte alle porte della Giustizia, a testimonianza delle leggi, posero il Consiglio e l’ordine di Pirro.”

Our rectangular base was found in the area of the Praetorium of Gortyna (Crete), in front of whose door it was probably placed with a statue on top of it. The elegant three elegiac distichs epigram is dedicated to the praetorian prefect Antonius Marcellinus from the Council of Gortyna and an official named Pyrrhus. Four decades later this support was reused on its opposite side to engrave an inscription honouring Anicius Bassus (ICret. 04, 314 = Bigi, Tantillo 2020, p. 192, nr. 2 = LSA 775) as proconsul of Campania, an office he held between 379 and 382 AD. Later still, the base was re-employed once more, this time as building material for a Byzantine church, near which it was found.

The inscription is reduced on the upper right corner and, as a result, is missing the end of the first three lines. This loss probably occurred before 1740, because the priest Zacharias Skordylios, the Venetian Francesco Barozzi and the Vicentine Onorio Belli provided a complete copy in the 16th Century, but when Richard Pococke visited Crete between 1737 and 1742, the inscription was already damaged (Pococke 1752, p. 43, nr. 3; see Tantillo 2012, pp. 409-410).

It was possible to restore most of this loss through these ancient copies: the office of Marcellinus is perfectly legible (ἰθυντῆ[ρα]) but the office or epithet that follows is partially fragmentary (ἡγε̣[- - -] ταμίην). The meaning of these references has been the subject of discussion. D. Levi (1922, pp. 328, 360-361) supposed that Marcellinus was a quaestor pro praetore of Crete (but this office had no juridical duties); according to M. Guarducci (1929, pp. 151-153, nr. 4 with 1930, pp. 88-89, and ICret. 04, 323), after serving as quaestor in the province of Crete (and Cyrenaica), Marcellinus was corrector totius Italiae (translation of the first lines, Ἑσπερίης πάση̣ς χθονὸς ὄβριμον ἰθυντῆρα, that Kaibel already suggested), an office that requires a date within the 3rd Century AD for the dedication. However, basing on palaeography, L. Robert (1948, pp. 89-94) proposed a later chronology for our epigram, in the 4th Century AD. This chronology asks for a different interpretation of the career of Marcellinus. Robert translated ἰθυντήρ as regent or governor and noted that the combination with Ἑσπερίη would fit a praetorian prefect of Italy (Robert 1948, pp. 91-92); but since he himself dated the document to the second half of the 4th Century AD because of the dedicator (see below), and no prefect named Marcellinus is attested in that period, he chose the more infrequent reading of Ἑσπερίη as Crete (cf. Böckh in CIG 02, 2589), rather than Italy, and suggested to consider Marcellinus a governor of Crete.

This hypothesis was linked to the chronology of the dedicator (Pyrrhus), who Robert identified with a homonymous Pyrrhus, sophist, author of a dedication to the governor of Crete Asclepiodotus in 382/383 AD (ICret. 04, 313 = Puech 2002, p. 431, nr. 231 = LSA 774), and probably governor of the province himself after few years (Robert 1948, p. 91 = ICret. 04, 324 = Puech 2002, p. 431-433, nr. 232 = LSA 786). But this Pyrrhus, styled the “younger” in ICret. 04, 324, may be a descendant, possibly a son, of the Pyrrhus recorded in the dedication to Marcellinus (cf. PLRE I, Pyrrhus 2 and 3, p. 756; Tantillo 2012, pp. 412-413). Moreover, we should consider that the statue base of Marcellinus was reused in 379-382 AD (see above). These elements suggest an earlier chronology for the dedication and allow the identification with the praetorian prefect of Italy, Africa and Illyricum Antonius Marcellinus who was in service under Constans (PLRE I, Marcellinus 16, pp. 548-549). The identification, that had already been cautiously supposed in the PLRE I (Marcellinus 5, p. 545; cf. De Tommaso 2000, p. 343; Puech 2002, pp. 432-433; Coşkun 2004, p. 292), has been persuasively confirmed by a recent study of I. Tantillo (2012).

Tantillo rightly proposes to integrate in the third line the plural ἡγε̣[μόνων] before ταμίην, as confirmed by 16th Century autoptic copies, but with the meaning of “giver of governors”, in accordance with known prefects’ duties in the East, between the 4th and 5th Century, which we can consider to have been in force in the West as well. So, this is the first testimony for the dioceses of Italy, Africa and Illyricum of the full praetorian prefect’s jurisdiction over the provincial governors, from designation to dismissal and also the appointment of a vicar (see Tantillo 2012, pp. 416-420). This assumption could therefore help us identify the dedicator Pyrrhus as the governor of Crete, who decreed this monument in honour of the prefect for having lightened the tax burden of the city. The scholar finally dated our inscription around 340 AD, a period coinciding with Marcellinus’s praetorian prefecture, maybe before his consulate in 341 AD (CLRE, pp. 216-217), which is not mentioned in the inscription (Tantillo 2021, p. 421).

Gortyna’s dedications represent the earliest examples of honorary inscriptions in Greek verse for a praetorian prefect in a period when there was still a local variability in the choice between Latin and Greek. That said, we have to remember that the βουλὴ of Gortyna dedicated our monument to Marcellinus and the language of this institution was Greek.

Marcellinus probably was a member of a prominent Greek family: in the dedication he is praised as «the shining offshoot of Hellas» (cf. LSA 785); his career likely began under Constantine in Gaul, where he became praeses Lugdunensis primae in 313 AD (CTh 11, 03, 01), proconsul of Africa between 337 and 338 AD (CIL 08, 25524 = LSA 2358), then praetorian prefect of Italy, Africa and Illyricum of Constans between 340 and 341/342 AD (CTh 11, 12, 01; CTh 06, 22, 03; cf. Barnes 1992, p. 255; for the chronology of Marcellinus’ service, see PPRET 22), finally consul in 341 AD (CLRE, pp. 216-217). He is listed first in the college of prefects recorded on the inscription in honour of the emperor Constans from Augusta Traiana (PPRET 22).

Pococke 1752, p. 43, nr. 3 CIG 02, 2589 Kaibel 1878, pp. 373-374, nr. 905 IGR 01, 0972 Levi 1922, p. 360, nr. 4 Guarducci 1929, p. 151, nr. 4 Guarducci 1930, p. 88 Robert 1948, pp. 89-90 ICret 04, 323 PLRE I, Marcellinus 5, p. 545 SEG 15 (1958), 0576 Bile 2002, pp. 139-140 = AE 2005, 1648 = SEG 55 (2005), 0992 Puech 2002, p. 432, nr. 232 Tantillo 2012, p. 421 = AE 2012, 1786 [rev. AE 2005, 1648] = BE 2013, 512

LSA 785 Tantillo 2012, p. 408

LSA 785 PH 200767 TM 781816

Barnes T.D., Proconsuls of Africa, 337-392, Phoenix, 39, 1985, 144-153 (Corrigenda, ibid., 273-274) Barnes T.D., Praetorian prefects, 337–361, ZPE, 94, 1992, 249-260 Bigi F., Tantillo I. (a cura di), I senatori romani nel Pretorio di Gortina. Le statue di Asclepiodotus e le scelte amministrative di Graziano dopo Adrianopoli, Pisa 2020 Bile M., Quelques épigrammes crétoises (IIe s. av. – Ve s. ap. J.-C.), in Dion J. (éd.), L'épigramme de l'antiquité au XVIIe siècle, ou Du ciseau à la pointe, Nancy 2002, 123-141 Coşkun A., Die Praefecti praesent(al)es und die Regionalisierung der Praetorianer-praefekturen im vierten Jahrhundert, Millennium, 1, 2004, 279-328 De Tommaso G., Il settore B: la basilica del Pretorio, in Di Vita A. (a cura di), Gortina V.1. Lo scavo del Pretorio (1989-1995), Padova 2000, 285-383 Guarducci M., Le iscrizioni del Pretorio di Gortina, RIA, 1, 1929, 143-184 Guarducci M., Addenda alle iscrizioni del Pretorio, RIA, 2, 1930, 88-89 Kaibel G., Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta, Berlin 1878 Levi D., Silloge in corsivo delle iscrizioni metriche cretesi, SIFC, 4, 1922, 321-400 Pococke R., Inscriptionum antiquarum Graecarum et Latinarum liber, I, London 1752 Puech B., Orateurs et sophistes grecs dans les inscriptions d’époque impériale, Paris 2002 Robert L., Hellenica: recueil d épigraphie, de numismatique et d’antiquités grecques. IV. Epigrammes du Bas-Empire, Paris 1948 Tantillo I., “Dispensatore di governatori”: a proposito di una dedica a un prefetto del pretorio di Gortina (IC IV 323), RFIC, 140, 2012, 407-424

εὐδικίῃ καὶ ἀρωγῇ κουφίζων πόλιας θῆκεν ἐλαφροτέρας

Ἑσπερίης πάση̣ς χθονὸς ὄβριμον ἰθυντῆρα, ἡγε̣μόνων ταμίην, Ἑλλάδος ἀγλαὸν ἔρνος

Ἑσπερίης πάσης χθονὸς ὄβριμον ἰθυντῆρα, ἡγεμόνων ταμίην

Ἑλλάδος ἀγλαὸν ἔρνος