Inscription in honour of Valentinian II from Aphrodisias by Tatianus praet. praefect
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/)

Ἀγαθῇ Τύχῃ τὸν τῆς ὑφ’ ἡλίῳ γῆς αὐτοκράτορα καὶ τροπεοῦχον δεσπότην ἡμῶν Φλάουιον Οὐαλλεντινιανὸν τὸν αἰώνιον Αὔγουστον .

This edition follows the text edited in IAph2007 4.10 (Roueché).

“Alla Sorte propizia ! All’imperatore della Terra sotto il sole, e nostro vittorioso signore, Flavius Valentinianus, l’eterno Augusto, Flavius Eutolmius Tatianus, il chiarissimo prefetto del sacro pretorio con la consueta devozione consacrò, mentre era chiarissimo governatore Antonius Priscus.”

“May Fortune be propitious ! To the emperor of the earth under the sun, and our victorious master, Flavius Valentinianus, the eternal Augustus, Flavius Eutolmius Tatianus, of clarissimus rank, prefect of the sacred praetorium, dedicated with the customary devotion, when Antonius Priscus was governor of clarissimus rank.”

“Que la Fortune soit favorable ! À l’empereur de la Terre sous le soleil, et notre seigneur victorieux, Flavius Valentinianus, l’éternel Auguste, Flavius Eutolmius Tatianus, le clarissime préfet du prétoire sacré avec la dévotion habituelle a consacré, alors qu’il était gouverneur clarissime Antonius Priscus.”

In September 1905 the French engineer P. Gaudin (1858-1921) found the inscribed columnar base on the West side of the stoa of the South Agora. It lay near the door and the staircase (North side) of the gate of access leading from the Agora to the Hadrianic Baths through the eastern forecourt (the so called Palaestra Court) (on the findspot of the base, see http://insaph.kcl.ac.uk/ala2004/iPlans/0001/03.html ; Smith 2007, fig. 42, B 32; about Gaudin’s research, see Commentary to PPRET 82). The find spot seems to be its original location. The base was separated from the statue. Remains of a clamp hole at the top of the column served to hold the base of the statue. On the right and left sides of the column base two vertical grooves suggest the insertion of a balustrade (for this typology of support, see Commentary to PPRET 82).

The monument in honour of the emperor Valentinianus II was erected by order of the Praetorian prefect Fl. Eutolmius Tatianus, during his prefecture, in 388/392 AD, and was made at Aphrodisias by the governor of Caria, Antonius Priscus (see below; for a possible dating to 388/390, see PPRET 86)

The area of the Hadrianic Baths, and the forecourt (the 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 (for figures, see Commentary to PPRET 82).

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: one in honour of the emperor Arcadius Augustus (PPRET 83), and the other in honour of Honorius nobilissimus puer (PPRET 82). It is highly likely that the emperor Theodosius was honoured too on a similar monument now lost (see 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 columnar base for the emperor Valentinianus II was found together with the columnar base for the emperor Arcadius, near the same gate (South side) which connected the South Agora with the eastern forecourt of the Hadrianic Baths (Palaestra Court) (see PPRET 83).

The two monuments for Valentinianus II and Arcadius (PPRET 83) Augusti were placed on the two sides of the same entrance staircase to the Hadrianic Baths. The introductory formulas (resp. ll. 1-4 and 1-3) and the structure of the two inscriptions are identical: they are ‘twin’ inscriptions. In both inscriptions the names of the two dedicators, the praetorian prefect and the governor of Caria, have been erased. At a short distance from these two monuments for the Augusti, but in another building, the prefect Tatianus, with the aid of the governor Priscus, had another columnar monument put up. The latter is in honour of Honorius nobilissimus puer (PPRET 82). The columnar base for Honorius was found in the East forecourt of the Hadrianic Baths (the so called Palaestra Court), close to a dedication carved on a columnar base by the provincial council in honour of Aelia Flaccilla, his mother (ALA2004, 23 = IAph2007, 5.216 = LSA 0185, see Commentary to PPRET 82). R.R.R. 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 by the praetorian prefect at the entrance gate from the West stoa of the South Agora into Hadrianic Baths (for a reconstruction, see Smith 2018, pp. 338-339, fig. 10). The monument for Honorius may have been moved later. 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 Thedosius 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).

The fragments of two statues were found in the same West stoa of the South Agora between 1904/05 and 1988 and portray two young emperors standing, wearing a diadem (see Commentary to PPRET 82). The identification is uncertain, but archaeologists believe it to be Arcadius and Valentinianus II, the Augusti celebrated by the prefect Tatianus on this side of the South Agora by our ‘twin’ inscriptions (resp. PPRET 83 and 84). It is highly likely that the two statues were placed on the two columnar bases dedicated by the prefect Tatianus, although we are currently unable to establish which one is Arcadius and which one is Valentinianus II. The headless togate statue of the emperor found in 1975, which is now in the Aphrodisias Museum (inv. 79/10/176 [75-248]; see Smith 2007, p. 228 and fig. 42, A 38; Taf. 63 fig. 30 = LSA 0165 = Gehn 2012, pp. 403-406, O 24, Taf. 14) is generally identified as Arcadius, who would have been between 10 and 15 years in 388/392 AD. The togate portrait statue of the emperor found in 1904/05, which is now in the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul (inv. 2264; see Smith 2007, p. 228 and fig. 42, A 37; Taf. 63 fig. 31 = LSA 0163 = Gehn 2012, pp. 398-403, O 23, Taf. 13-14) has been identified by Mendel (1914, pp. 199-202, nr. 506) as Valentinianus II, who was between 17 and 21 years old in 388/392. This last identification, based on a comparison with the effigies on coins, could be reversed, since the emperor whose portrait remains – the so called Valentinianus II – looks rather young: it could be Arcadius and not Valentinianus II, who was older. Whatever the case, one of the two statues was probably anchored to our columnar base.

It should be noted that the prefect Tatianus had a 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. Their diffusion also reveals a systematic strategy of celebration.

In the years 388/392 AD, when the praetorian prefect Tatianus had monuments to the rulers built at Aphrodisia, Side and Antinoupolis the position of Valentinianus II was very weak. The usurper Maximus had invaded Italy in 387 AD and Valentinianus took refuge near Thessalonica, handing himself over to Theodosius I. In August 388 AD Maximus was defeated by Theodosius and killed. Although the senior Augustus, Valentinianus II was sent by Theodosius to Trier (Gauls), under the control of the magister militum Arbogast, and remained in a very marginal political position until his death in the Spring 392 AD (see McEvoy 2013, pp. 86-102; Omissi 2018, pp. 255-290).

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. A comparison of the partially erased letters in other inscriptions made by our prefect (PPRET 82, 83, 85, 86) is also useful. In fact, his name and his titulature were often erased. After an important career, which began in 358 AD, Eutolmius Tatianus became praetorian prefect of the East and held the office from 388 to 392 AD. He resided 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). This fall from grace caused Tatianus’ name to be erased from many inscriptions (PPRET 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 88). Many years later an (homonymous) descendant of Tatianus ordered a Greek inscription in verse to be engraved in honour of his ancestor Tatianus, the praetorian prefect in the city of Aphrodisias (PPRET 91).

At lines 9-10 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 uses this same peculiar formula.

Antonius Priscus, governor of Caria (PLRE I, p. 730), is known only through 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 he 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 superivise the making 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.

Mendel 1914, p. 201, nr. 506/2 Grégoire 1922, nr. 276 = AE 1949, 0220 Robert 1948, pp. 50-51 = BE 1949, 178 ALA, nr. 27 (with photo Pl. VII)

ALA2004 27 IAph2007 4.11 LSA 166 PH 257545 TM 855966

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