Inscription in honour of Valentinian I, Valens and Gratian from Cherson by the praet. prefect Modestus
source date: 370/375 AD
edition published: 2020-05-08
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/)

Triumphatoribus fortissimis ac gloriosissimis principibus Valentiniano victoriosissimo domino et Valentem fratrem eius domino nostro [...] maximo et Gratiano [...] domino nostro nepoti Valentis semper Augustis, Domitius Modestus vir clarissimus, praefectus praetorio et [...] vir clarissimus, comes et magister numini magistatique eorum devoti [...]rante disponente [...]m decemprimo [...]n[...]orum seu ballistariorum [...]mvppatrenovi[...] [...]

Edition based on AE 1984, 0804, with modifications .

“To the very strong and very glorious Triumphant Princes Valentinian, very Victorious master, and Valens, his brother, our master and greatest … and Gratian ... our master, nephew of Valens, forever Augusti, Domitius Modestus, of clarissimus rank, praetorian prefect and ... of clarissimus rank, count … devoted to their divine spirit and majesty ... disposing ... decemprimus ... of the ballistarii...”

“Aux princes triomphants les très forts et les très glorieux Valentinien, seigneur très victorieux, et son frère Valens, notre seigneur... maximum et Gratien... notre seigneur, neveu de Valens, toujours Augusti, Domitius Modestus, clarissime préfet du prétoire et ..., clarissime comte ..., dévoués à leur divinité et à leur majesté ... sous le contrôle de ... decemprimus ... des ballistarii...”

“Ai Principi trionfatori fortissimi e gloriosissimi Valentinianus signore vittoriosissimo e suo fratello Valens, nostro signore ... massimo e Graziano ... nostro signore, nipote di Valens, sempre Augusti, Domitius Modestus, chiarissimo, prefetto del pretorio e ..., chiarissimo, comes ..., devoti al nume e alla maestà loro ... disponente ... decemprimo ... dei ballistarii...”

The inscription was found in 1905 on the ancient site of Cherson in the Crimea, near the modern city of Sevastopol. The inscription was placed at the top of a stone block that had been reused in a Byzantine wall; the bottom and the left sides of the epigraphic field are lost and the text is hardly legible after the operations that were carried out to remove the limestone from the epigraphic field. It was first published in 1907 by M.I. Rostovzev (= AE 1907, 0164 = AE 1908, 0178), who also took care of the edition of the document in IosPE (01², 449). A new edition was provided in 1983 by E.I. Solomonik, in her collection of the Latin inscriptions from Cherson (Solomonik 1983, pp. 28-30, with pl. nr. 3). Basing their work on this last publication, G. Alföldy and C. Zuckerman have proposed important new readings of this fragmentary text (Alföldy 1984, p. 786; Zuckerman 1991, pp. 550-551).

As the remarkable dimensions of the fragment show, the inscription must have originally been of considerable size: we do not know how many lines of text are lost at the bottom, but from the integration in l. 8 (clarissimus praef]ectus pr(a)etorio) it can be supposed one half or perhaps a little more of the epigraphic field on the left has been lost (making an original width of around one meter at least).

The text opens with a dedication to the emperors Valentinian, Valens and Gratian (ll. 1-7) which emphasizes the unity of the imperial college, underlining the family ties between the three rulers (cf. Lenski 2002, p. 357). After the dedication comes the mention of the praetorian prefect Domitius Modestus and another official of clarissimus rank, whose name is not preserved. His fragmentary titulature suggests that he was a military commander: a co[mes et magister according to the editors (that is, a magister militum: cf. PLRE I, Anonymus 21, pp. 1009-1010); a co[mes per Thracias according to Zuckerman, since the garrison of Cherson was usually attached to the army of the lower Danube (1991, p. 550; we have registered above that the city belonged to the Danubian province of Scythia, but there is no conclusive evidence on this point). Both Modestus and the unknown officer are registered in the nominative case and this means that they were the authors of the dedication to the emperors. A third official is introduced in l. 11, as supervisor (disponente, which seems to be preceded by a similar word, perhaps cu]rante or administ]rante, although this formulation makes little sense) of the operation that was celebrated in the second part of the text. Nor is his name preserved, but the inscription styles him decemprimus (l. 12). Here probably the term designates not a member of the curial élite, but a position reserved for the first ten senior members of the protectors (cf. CTh 06, 24, 07-11, with Jones 1964, p. 639) and the fragmentary reference in the following line to ballistarii suggests that this official was in charge of such a unit. The reading of the text in the last preserved line of the inscription is unclear. Alföldy proposed to see the title of a fourth official of perfectissimus rank (and patronus?), responsible for the action referred at the end of the line: per - - -]m v(irum) p(erfectissimum) pat(ronum)? removi[t | et - - - (Alföldy 1984, p. 786); but Rostovzev and Solomink printed renovi not removi in their editions. The abbreviation of the rank and titulature, which is not attested for the other officials, is also problematic. Moreover, Zuckerman (1991, p. 551) has pointed out that the restitution of the unit’s name from l. 13 can hardly leave enough room for another official and has cautiously suggested that the gap at the beginning of l. 14 be filled with bal | [listariorum iunioru]m (or Dafnensiu]m; for the identification of the unit, see below). If we follow this solution, the significance of the second part of the line (vppatrenovi[---; the photo in Solomonik 1983 does not allow us to check the reading) remains unclear.

The fragmentary text thus combines a dedication to the emperors – the reference to the devotion of the two high-ranking officials to the divine spirit and the majesty of the emperors in ll. 10-11 should imply also a representation of the imperial college – with the celebration of works that had been carried out in the city. Although the fragmentary condition of the text makes it difficult to clarify the reason behind the dedication, the inscription is a crucial document for the history of the Roman presence in this strategic stronghold in the northern Black Sea (on Cherson in late antiquity, see Ščukin, Kazanski, Sharov 2006, pp. 75-76; Jastrzębowska 2001, pp. 399-418). The text can be dated to 370-375 AD, after the beginning of the prefecture of Domitius Modestus (see PPRET 68) and before the death of the emperor Valentinian I (November 17th 375 AD.) It also offers the earliest testimony to the presence of a garrison of ballistarii at Cherson. This unit of the Roman army, composed of light-armed soldiers equipped with hand-held crossbows (see Baatz 1999, pp. 5-19; Campbell 2003, pp. 37-43), is also attested in Cherson in an inscription dated to 487-488 AD, that celebrates the renovation of the city walls under the supervision of the κόμης Diogenes (CIG 04, 08621 = Latyshev, Christian Greek Inscriptions from South Russia, nr. 7 = IOSPE3 5,6; cf. PLRE II, Diogenes 7, p. 361); another inscription, recording the construction of a wall in Cherson during the reign of Theodosius I (IosPE 01², 450 = IOSPE3 5,5), refers to “mechanics” who might have belonged to the same unit (Zuckerman 1991, p. 550). The unit of ballistarii remained at Cherson for a long time and went on to influence the city’s history: in the later traditions they were transformed into an indigenous militia allied to the Roman Empire from the time of Diocletian (Const. Porph., De Adm. Imp., ed. Moravcsik, pp. 258-267). Nevertheless, these ballistarii belonged to the Roman army and might well be identified with the b. Dafnenses or the b. Iuniores listed in the Notitia Dignitatum under the disposition of the master of the soldiers of Thracia (Not.Dign. Or. 08, 46-47; see Zuckerman 1991, pp. 549-550; Zuckerman 1995, pp. 549-553).

They had probably been deployed in Crimea round about the time of our inscription because we know that during the tetrarchic period, Cherson was guarded by a different unit, a vexillation of the Scythian legio II Herculia and of the Moesian legio I Italica (Alföldy 1984, pp. 785-786; this garrison too was overseen by a protector: see IosPE 01², 656 = Solomonik 1983, pp. 27-28, nr. 2, with Zuckerman 1995, pp. 553-554). Although the date of the withdrawal of this tetrarchic unit is unknown, C. Zuckerman points to a passage of Zosimus concerning the future usurper Procopius who hid in Cherson in 364-365 AD, which may suggest that no Roman garrison was installed there at the beginning of the rule of the Pannonian brothers (Zos. 04, 05, 02; Zuckerman 1991, p. 552, nt. 93; Zuckerman 1995, p. 558; Paschoud 1979, pp. 340-341, is skeptical about the reliability of this passage; cf. Lenski 2002, pp. 70-71). It is therefore possible that the deployment of the ballistarii in Cherson was decreed by the emperor Valens only after the usurpation of Procopius (365-366 AD). This chronology suggests a clear connection between the arrival of the new garrison in Cherson and our inscription.

The sources furnish plenty of evidence about the defence of the frontier under Valentinian and Valens, which became ever more intense after the appointment of Gratian as Augustus in 367 AD. This activity resulted in the construction of military forts, the renovation of city walls and the location of new garrisons in strategic places (see Lenski 2002, pp. 375-379, with a list of datable evidence). Cherson, a fortress in the Crimean Peninsula, was one of these places. The inscription probably celebrated operations related to the settlement of the new garrison in Cherson: even if the interpretation of l. 14 remains uncertain, the last letters may refer, reading renov[avit/ari instead of renovi[, to a restoration of the city defences, completed by the ballistarii unit (this solution was already suggested by Rostovzev: IosPE 01², p. 410, nr. 449). The importance of this intervention is confirmed by the considerable size of the inscription and by the reference to Domitius Modestus, the powerful high official of Valens, who held the prefecture of the East from 370 to 377 AD (see PPRET 68 for a detailed discussion of his career). The inscriptions of these years referring to building activity carried out along the frontier usually make reference only to the military officials who were responsible for the area and to the commanders of the units who actually carried the work out (see the dossier concerning the activity supervised by the master of the soldiers Fl. Equitius in Illyricum: references in PLRE I, p. 282). In the inscription from Cherson, Domitius Modestus is the first official to be recorded after the imperial college. A prefect spending so much time and money on the Crimea is certainly a little hard to conceive. Nevertheless, the prominence of the inscription indicates the importance of the operations carried out in the city.

Rostovzev 1907, p. 6 = AE 1907, 0164 = AE 1908, 0178 IosPE 01² 449 Solomonik 1983, pp. 28-30, nr. 3, with photo (pl. 3) = AE 1984, 0804 Alföldy 1984, p. 786 Zuckerman 1991, pp. 550-551

EDCS 12700195 EDH 002734 PH 208334 TM 197489

Alföldy G., Review of Latinskie nadpisi Chersonesa Tavričeskogo (Latin inscriptions of Chersonesus Tauric), Gnomon, 56, 1984, 784-786 Baatz D., Katapulte und mechanische Handwaffen des spätrömischen Heeres, JRMES, 10, 1999, 5-19 Campbell D.B., Greek and Roman Artillery 399 BC – AD 363, Oxford 2003 Jastrzębowska E., Chersonèse dans l’antiquité tardive: état des recherches et bibliographie, AntTard, 9, 2001, 399-418 Jones A.H.M., The Later Roman Empire, 284-602. A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey, 3 vols., Oxford 1964 Lenski N., Failure of Empire. Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century A.D., Berkeley-Los Angeles-London 2002 Paschoud F. (texte établi et trad. par), Zosime. Histoire Nouvelle. T. II, 2e partie (Livre IV), Paris 1979 Rostovzev M., Novye latinskije nadpisy iz Chersonesa (New Latin Inscriptions from Chersonesus), Izvestija Imperatorskoj Arheologičeskoj Komissii, 23, 1907, 1-20 Ščukin M., Kazanski M., Sharov M., Des les goths aux huns. Le nord de la mer noire au Bas-empire et à l’époque des grandes migrations, Oxford 2006 Solomonik, Latinskie nadpisi Chersonesa Tavričeskogo (Latin Inscriptions of Chersonesus Tauric), Moskva 1983 Zuckerman C., The Early Byzantine Strongholds in Eastern Pontus, T&M, 11, 1991, 527-553 Zuckerman C., Episkopy i garnizon Hersona v IV veke (The bishops and the Garrison of Cherson in the 4th Century), in Materialy po arheologii,istorii i etnografii (Materials on Archaeology, History and Ethnography of Tauris) 4, Simféropol 1995, 545-561

vir [clarissimus]

[praef]ectus pr(a)etorio