Inscription in honour of Honorius from Aphrodisias by Tatianus praet. prefect
source date: 388/392 AD
edition published: 2021-05-14
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/)

τὸν ἐκ τῆς θείας γονῆς θεοφιλέστατον Φλάουιον Ὁνώριον τὸν ἐπιφανέστατον, τῇ συνήθει καθοσιώσει ἀφιέρωσεν, ἐπὶ Ἀντωνίου Πρίσκου τοῦ λαμπροτάτου ἡγεμόνος.

This edition follows the text edited in IAph2007 5.217 (Roueché); in Apparatus we read: «In ll.5 and 6 Reinach reads nothing; Robert read in l.5, Φλ(?) Εὐτόλμιος Τατια[·· ? ··]. The restoration here is based on very unclear readings». In fact, the photographs do not allow us to decipher the erased letters.

“A Flavius Honorius, progenie imperiale (= porfirogenito), carissimo a Dio, nobilissimo (fanciullo), Flavius Eutolmius Tatianus, chiarissimo prefetto del sacro pretorio consacrò con la consueta devozione, mentre era chiarissimo governatore Antonius Priscus.”

“To Flavius Honorius, of divine descent, most dear to God, the most noble, Flavius Eutolmius Tatianus, of clarissimus rank, prefect of the sacred praetorium, dedicated with the customary devotion, when Antonius Priscus was governor of clarissimus rank”.

“À Flavius Honorius, progéniture impériale (= porphyrogenitus), très cher à Dieu, très noble (enfant), Flavius Eutolmius Tatianus, le clarissime préfet du sacré prétoire, a consacré avec la dévotion habituelle, alors qu’il était gouverneur clarissime Antonius Priscus.”

In 1904, during the first excavations of Aphrodisias, the French engineer Paul Gaudin (1858-1921) found on the northern side of the East forecourt (the so called Palaestra Court) of the Hadrianic Baths, the columnar base for Honorius nobilissimus puer (about Gaudin and his research see Collignon 1904; Mendel 1906; Erim 1967; Charloux 2001; Smith 2007, p. 207; Ratté 2008; http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/bibliography/index.html; on the findspot of the base see http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/ala2004/iPlans/0001/03.html; Smith 2007, fig. 42, B 31). The columnar base is currently located in the north-eastern corner of the East forecourt (the so called Palaestra Court) of the Hadrianic Baths (so IAph2007 5.217 and LSA 0167). The upper edge of the inscribed monument has been cut and, on the left upper edge, there are traces left by a clamp. The base was separated from the statue. The find spot appears to be its original location, but it cannot be completely excluded that the monument was moved to the Palaestra Court (see below). The use of columnar bases as a support for inscriptions and statue-bases is widespread at Aphrodisias (see http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/ala2004/inscription/bymon.html ; for fixing the statue to columnar or semi-columnar bases see Bigi 2020, figs. 46-49, concerning monuments in honour of emperors at Gortyna and at Aphrodisias; for the re-use of columns as statue bases for emperors in the Greek-speaking world see Stefanidou-Tiveriou 2018; on statue-raising for emperors in the Late Empire see Anderson 2016; Ward-Perkins 2016).

The area of the Hadrianic Baths, and the forecourt (so called Palaestra Court) that connected the Baths on their West side with the short East-side of the stoa of the South Agora, have preserved the highest number of honorary inscriptions and statues in the city. The archaeologists have found in this area the highest number of inscribed monuments (40), remains of statues (22), statue-heads (22), busts (6), shields-portraits (14), all of them Late Antique in date (see Smith 2007, p. 218; Smith 2016, pp. 146, 149, fig. 12.1; Smith 2018, p. 334: «At Aphrodisias [...] in Late Antiquity a total of some 60 statuary items and 40 bases»). These remains are attributed to emperors (4th Century), governors (5th/6th Century) and aristocrats of the city (6th Century). This public space was still in use up until the 6th Century (on the statuary of Aphrodisias, see Smith 2016, pp. 156-158; Smith 2018, fig. 1; on the long life of the Hadrianic Baths, see McDavid 2015; McDavid 2016; Wilson 2019).

The monument for the future emperor Honorius was erected by order of the Praetorian prefect Fl. Eutolmius Tatianus, during his prefecture in 388/392 AD and it was made at Aphrodisias by the governor of Caria, Antonius Priscus (see below; for a possible dating to 388/390, see PPRET 86). At Aphrodisias, two other inscriptions were carved on two other columnar statue bases made by the same awarders – the praetorian prefect Fl. Eutolmius Tatianus and the governor Priscus – to more emperors: one in honour of the emperor Arcadius Augustus (PPRET 83) and the other in honour of the emperor Valentinianus II Augustus (PPRET 84). It is very likely that Theodosius too was honoured on a similar monument now lost (so also J. Lenaghan in LSA 0167; for the statue of this emperor discovered in 1972 in the Tetrastoon of Aphrodisias, see Smith 2001; Smith 2018, fig. 10; LSA 0196).

The two monuments of Valentinianus II and Arcadius were placed in the West stoa of the South Agora, a short distance from the monument for Honorius (less than 25 m.). Roueché (1989, p. 48) suggests that the fragmentary statues of two young standing emperors found in 1904/05 and in 1975, in this area, now in the Instanbul Museum and in the Aphrodisias Museum respectively, are probably Arcadius and Valentinianus II (on these statues, see Smith 2007, p. 218; Gehn 2017, pp. 389-392; the so called Arcadius: Smith 1999, p. 162, fig. 4, Pl. XII, figs. 1-2; Smith 2007, p. 228, A 38, Taf. 63, fig. 30 for a graphic restoration; Smith 2016, p. 150, fig. 12.5; LSA 0165; Gehn 2012, pp. 403-406, O 24, Taf. 14; the so called Valentinianus II: Smith 1999, p. 162, fig. 3; Smith 2007, p. 228, A 37, Taf. 63, fig. 31 for a graphic restoration; LSA 0163; Gehn 2012, pp. 398-403, O 23, Taf. 13-14). In 1988 two fragments of a diademed emperor’s head were found next to the statues of these emperors (Smith 2007, p. 229, A 42; LSA 0168). The identification of the statue's head is uncertain. In any case, two columnar bases with inscriptions in honour of Valentinianus II and Arcadius Augusti and the remains of two standing statues of other late antique emperors have been found in the West Stoa in the South Agora, which is near the entrance to the Hadrianic Baths. The honorary inscription for the emperor Honorius was probably one of a group of monuments honouring the imperial college of the years 388/392 in Aphrodisias (the so called ‘Theodosian statue group,’ but Valentinianus II was not a member of the Theodosian family). The inscriptions carved on the two columnar bases that were erected at the behest of the prefect Tatianus are identical (PPRET 83, 84). Although the base in honour of Honorius is in the East forecourt (the so called Palaestra Court) of the Hadrianic Baths, and not in the neraby West stoa of the South Agora, Smith thinks that four columnar monuments (bases and statues) of the members of the imperial college (Valentinianus II, Theodosius, Arcadius Augusti and Honorius) were probably erected in 388/392 AD at the entrance gate from the West stoa of the South Agora into the Hadrianic Baths (see the reconstruction by Smith 2018, pp. 338-339, fig. 10). The monument for Honorius may have been moved later. However, Honorius was only nobilissimus puer, and was not made Augustus until January 23rd 393 AD. In that year, when Valentinian II Augustus had been dead for about eight months, and when Eugenius ruled in the West as a usurper, Theodosius I proclaimed his youngest son Honorius, who was 10 years old, Augustus. In the inscription issued by the prefect Tatianus from Aphrodisias, Honorius is, in fact, referred to as τὸν ἐπιφανέστατον. When Tatianus was forced to leave the Praetorian prefecture, Honorius had not yet become Augustus. Several elements suggest that the prefect Tatianus may have placed the monument to Honorius and the pair of 'twin' bases to the two Augusti (and perhaps another to Theodosius I) in two different public spaces simultaneously. Such a theory is suggested by the different location (Palaestra Court), the preservation of the name of the governor of Caria, Priscus, and the different eulogistic formula in the monument for Honorius nobilissimus, compared to the two monuments in honour of the Augusti Valentinianus II and Arcadius (in the West stoa of the South Agora). Furthermore, it is noticeable that the Aphrodisian monument to Honorius in the East forecourt (Palaestra Court) of the Hadrianic Baths is very close to the monument to his mother, Aelia Flavia Flaccilla, that was decreed by the provincial council of Caria (ALA2004, 23 = IAph2007, 5.216 = LSA 0185): τὴν αἰωνίαν καὶ θεοφιλε/στάτην Αὔγουσταν Αἰλίαν / Φλαβίαν Φλακκίλλαν / τὴν δέσποιναν τῆς οἰκουμένης /5 Κᾶρες ἵδρυσαν ἐν τῇ ἑαυτῶν / μητροπόλει / . The inscription to Honorius’ mother, probably erected before the death of Theodosius’ wife in 386 AD, seems to have influenced the inscription by Tatianus for Honorius, that was certainly put up no earlier than 388 AD. The latter is set apart from the monuments of Valentinianus II and Arcadius Augusti and, unlike these, but like the inscription for Flaccilla, it lacks the introductory formula ἀγαθῆι τύχηι. Flaccilla was the first wife of the emperor Theodosius. She became Augusta in 379 AD, and gave birth to Arcadius in 377 AD, Pulcheria in 379 AD, and Honorius in 384 AD; she died in 386 AD (PLRE I, pp. 341-342; see Marcos 1998; Santos Yanguas 2013; on her monument in Ephesus surrounded by Victories, see Roueché 2002). For Honorius, see McEvoy 2013, pp. 135-222; Doyle 2019; concerning the weaknesses of such a young emperor, see Icks 2014; for Honorius’ representation as 'puer senex', see Pavarani 2010. It seems likely that the praetorian prefect Tatianus dedicated monuments to the emperors Valentinianus II and Arcadius (and perhaps Theodosius I) in the West stoa of the South Agora, at the entrance to the Hadrianic Baths, and a monument to Honorius nobilissimus puer in the Palaestra Court inside the Hadrianic Baths.

It should be noted that the prefect Tatianus had series of monuments built in Side (Pamphylia, PPRET 85) and Antinoupolis (Thebais in Egypt, PPRET 86) in honour of the same imperial college (probably one statue on each base, but the four sovereigns are listed in each inscription): Valentinianus II, Theodosius I, Arcadius Augusti and Honorius nobilissimus (puer). Dedications made by the same praetorian prefect Tatianus, in three different and quite distant provinces (Caria, Pamphylia, Thebais) confirms that they are all of the same date. The wide diffusion of monuments also reveals a systematic celebratory strategy. Furthermore, in the ‘twin’ monuments issued by the prefect Tatianus at Side and Antinoupolis, Honorius is always referred to as nobilissimus / ἐπιφανέστατον without a noun, and both probably had a statue. In Rome Ceionius Rufius Albinus (PLRE I, pp. 37-38), prefect of the City in the years 389/391, raised three monuments to the imperial college: to Valentinian II (CIL 06, 31413 = LSA 1356 = EDR 126957), to Theodosius I (CIL 06, 36959 = LSA 1374 = EDR 071745), to Arcadius (CIL 06, 31414 = LSA 1357 = EDR 126958), but apparently not to Honorius, who is mentioned only in the monument to Termanthia, mother of Theodosius I and grandmother of Arcadius and Honorius, called nobilissimus iuvenis (CIL 06, 36960 = ILS 8950 = LSA 2267 = EDR 075350).

Both the name of the dedicator and his titulature are illegible. Thanks to Roueché’s autopsy re-reading (ALA, nr. 25), it is possible to trace the name and the titulature of the Praetorian prefect Tatianus in the erased lines 5-6 of the inscription. Also a comparison of the partially erased letters in other inscriptions made by the prefect Tatianus in honour of the emperors during his prefectorial office (PPRET 84, 85, 86) is useful. In fact, his name and his titulature were often erased. After an important career, commencing in 358 AD, he became praetorian prefect of the East from 388 to 392 AD, residing in Constantinople during Theodosius I long stay in Italy (the emperor only came back to Constantinople in July 391 AD; for Tatianus’ career, see PLRE I, pp. 876-878; Delmaire 1989, pp. 62-67; Olszaniec 2013, pp. 394-407; his cursus honorum is recorded in the inscription carved in his honour in Sidyma, see PPRET 87). Shortly after his return to Constantinople, the emperor Theodosius I deprived Tatianus of his office and sent him into exile in Lycia, while his son Proculus was sentenced to death (for a recent study, see Mecella 2015). The fall from grace caused Tatianus’ name to be erased from many inscriptions (PPRET 83, 84, 85, 86, 88), as can be seen on our columnar base for Honorius. Many years later a (homonymous) descendant of Tatianus ordered a Greek inscription in verse to be engraved in honour of his ancestor, the praetorian prefect, in the city of Aphrodisias (PPRET 91).

At line 7, the expression τῇ συνήθει καθοσιώσει “with the customary devotion,” does not refer to purification or public or pagan sacrifices (such as Nollé 1993, p. 331; U. Gehn in LSA 0267 and LSA 0876; Ogus 2018, p. 165). As in the inscriptions by Tatianus in Side and in Antinooupolis, καθοσίωσις (lat. devotio) means loyalty to the emperors (for ex. Eus., HE 09, 09a, 07; Eus., HE 10, 05, 18; Nov. Iust. 134, 13, 03; De Cerim. 01, 101 (92), p. 419 Reiske; ACO 02/01, 02, p. 60,39, Conc. Chalced. 451). The five inscriptions erected by Tatianus to the emperors reigning in the years 388/392 (PPRET 82, 83, 84, 85, 86) always use this same peculiar formula.

Antonius Priscus, governor of Caria (PLRE I, p. 730), is known only from the series of the three inscriptions dedicated by Tatianus at Aphrodisias (PPRET 82, 83, 84). In the inscription in honour of Honorius his name is preserved, but in the two inscriptions in honour of Arcadius and Valentiniaus II in the same city of Aphrodisias his name has been erased. Priscus was probably a client of the powerful praetorian prefect. Tatianus ordered the governor of the province to supervise the creation of the monuments. It is interesting to note that the inscriptions in honour of the emperors made by the praetorian prefect Tatianus at Side (PPRET 85) and Antinoupolis (PPRET 86) were also made by the governors of the provinces of Pamphylia and Thebais: at Side the name of the governor was erased, at Antinoupolis it was not. This anomaly is without explanation.

Reinach 1906, 111, nr. 31 = AE 1907, 0032 Grégoire 1922, nr. 281 Grégoire 1923, 151-154 = SEG 04 (1929), 0398 Grégoire 1927-1928, p. 342 Robert 1948, pp. 49-50 (with photo Pl. IV) = BE 1949, 178 ALA, nr. 25 (with photo Pl. VII) = SEG 39 (1989), 1099

ALA2004 25 IAph2007 5.217 LSA 167 PH 257543 TM 855964

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