Honorary inscription for an anonymous praet. prefect from Leptis Magna
source date: 330/400 AD
edition published: 2020-06-09
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/)

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Edition based on Tantillo, Bigi 2010.

(Tantillo, Bigi LSA 2167):

“... to a man of exceptional nobility and of all virtues, but also of carefully considered justice and ... sincerity, of incomparable prudence, ..., praetorian prefect, their patron. For the many benefits brought by his provision, the people of Lepcis Magna [set this up] from public funds”.

“... homme d’une noblesse exceptionnelle, et doté de toutes les vertus, ainsi que d’une justice bien pesée, d’une intégrité [admirable ?] et d’une sagacité sans pareille, pour... préfet au prétoire, patron, pour les nombreux bienfaits qui leur ont été apportés par sa providence... les habitants de Leptis Magna, aux frais de l’État.”

(Tantillo, Bigi 2010, p. 347):

“...! Uomo di eccezionale nobiltà, e dotato di ogni virtù, nonché di ponderata giustizia, di [mirabile?] integrità e di impareggiabile assennatezza, a… prefetto al pretorio, patrono, per i numerosi benefici apportati loro dalla sua previdenza... gli abitanti di Leptis Magna, a spese pubbliche.”

The inscription was carved on a statue base that was found in Leptis Magna, the capital of the province Tripolitania. The monument is still conserved today in the western part of the Severan Forum, near the steps of the temple, in the position where it was probably located in antiquity. First published in 1952 (IRT 611; cf. also Lepelley 1981, p. 345, nt. 55), the inscription has been newly edited in 2010 by I. Tantillo and F. Bigi with an improved reading of the text and an extensive commentary of the monument (Tantillo, Bigi 2010, pp. 345-348, nr. 21, and pl. VII; cf. LSA 2167). The base consists of a monolithic block of Proconnesian marble with mouldings at top and bottom, that are finished in the lateral faces, but only sketched out on the front and back (LSA 2167). The huge dimensions of the monument are unparalleled among the other bases found at Leptis Magna and the prestigious location within the forum testifies to the exceptional status of the figure being honoured (Tantillo, Bigi 2010, pp. 345-346; on the Severan Forum of the city see in Tantillo, Bigi 2010, M. Pentiricci, pp. 145-152, and I. Tantillo, pp. 176-178). He was patron of the city and his statue was dedicated by the people of Leptis Magna, possibly after a decree of the city-council, with public funds (Tantillo, Bigi 2010, p. 348).

The identification of the honorand is however problematic because the inscription was erased in antiquity and his name carefully removed from the stone on ll. 1 and 6. Tantillo and Bigi have been able to recognize at the end of l. 6, the words prạefe[c]ṭ[o] p̣ṛạẹṭor[i]o, that allow us to identify the official as a praetorian prefect or, less likely, as a vicar (agens vice praefecti praetorio; for the dedications to vicars at Leptis Magna, see Tantillo, Bigi 2010, pp. 355-364, nr. 25-28). According to the two scholars, the first solution is better. Not only is such a hypothesis supported by the massive dimensions of the base and its prestigious location within the Forum, such a solution also leaves more room at the beginning of the line (around 15 letters) for the registration of the name in two parts and the rank (v(iro) c(larissimo) or p(erfectissimo), but the chronology strongly suggests the senatorial rank, see below). They have also very cautiously proposed to read on l. 1, where the signum was recorded, the letter F, which lies more or less in the middle. They also read on l. 6, at the beginning, after three indecipherable letters, a letter with a vertical stroke followed by an O, then another gap of two or three letters and possibly LD or LB (Tantillo, Bigi 2010, pp. 347-348). Another significant clue for the identification comes from the praise reserved for the honorand, who the people of Leptis Magna describe as a man of praecipua nobilitas (l. 2): in official dedications, the term nobilitas is reserved to members of the Roman aristocracy (see Badel 2002, pp. 985-1001; Tantillo, Bigi 2010, p. 347). The term first appears in inscriptions dating to the last years of the reign of Constantine (CIL 06, 01683 (cf. p. 4733) = ILS 1221, to Anicius Paulinus iunior, 334/335 AD; CIL 06, 40776, to Valerius Aradius Proculus Populonius, 337 AD) and becomes more common from the 360’s (cf. PPRET 59, 60 and 64 to Petronius Probus). In combination with praecipua/praecipuus, nobilitas occurs only in three inscriptions dedicated to the twice urban prefect Vitrasius Orfitus in 359 AD (nobilitate et actibus praecipuo: CIL 06, 01739 (cf. pp. 855, 4748) = LSA 1441 = EDR 129603; CIL 06, 01740 (cf. p. 4748) = LSA 1442 = EDR 129604; CIL 06, 01742 (cf. p. 4749) = LSA 1444 = EDR 129606) and in another Roman text dated to 471 AD, of an otherwise unattested Ionius vir spectabilis (CIL 06, 41401 = CIL 06, 31947 = ILCV 0246 = ICUR n.s., 02, 04947 = EDR 093624). Considering the sharp decrease in epigraphic material in Leptis Magna from the beginning of the 5th Century onwards, a terminus ante quem for our inscription can be fixed for not much later than 400 AD (Tantillo, Bigi 2010, pp. 24-26, 169-171, 182-183; cf. Lepelley 1981, pp. 363-364).

We dispose therefore of three elements for the identification: 1) the erasure as a consequence of damnatio memoriae, perhaps for the involvement of the honorand in a usurpation (cf. Delmaire 2003, pp. 303-305); 2) his belonging to the Roman nobility; 3) a chronology of the office, most likely a praetorian prefecture, between 330 AD and 400 AD. A candidate who would fulfill all these “qualifications” is Virius Nicomachus Flavianus (see PPRET 92, 93, 94) but the identification is rendered less likely by the survival, in the same Severan Forum of Leptis Magna, of another dedication to this same aristocrat whose text has not been erased (IRT 475 = Tantillo, Bigi 2010, pp. 358-360, nr. 27). As pointed out by Tantillo and Bigi (2010, p. 348), if we discard the possibility of Flavianus, then no other satisfactory identification can be proposed. Valerius Felix, the praetorian prefect of Africa whose name was erased in the inscription from Tubernuc (PPRET 18), seems to lack the requisite nobilitas, while almost nothing is known about the prefect/s of Magnentius (see below). Among other potential candidates, Porena (reported in Tantillo, Bigi 2010, p. 348) would not exclude Ceionius Rufius Volusianus signo Lampadius, whose career suffered a ten-year interruption after holding the praetorian prefecture of Italy in 354(?)-355 AD, possibly as a consequence for his responsibility in the decision of Constantius II to execute the Caesar Gallus (see PPRET 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41).

The Lepcimagnenses praise the anonymous official for his perpensa iustitia (l. 3), his sinceritas (l. 4) and incomparabilis prudentia (l. 5). These virtues belong to the vocabulary of Late Antique officialdom and their use in the inscription of Leptis Magna can be compared with other occurrences in the epigraphic and legislative corpus at our disposition.

Sinceritas is widely attested in the imperial constitutions: in the Theodosian Code, the term (in the form sinceritas tua, “your sincerity”) is used by the emperors to refer to the highest-ranking officials as praetorian and urban prefects and master of the soldiers, but also vicars (ten times), palatine ministers and other “minor” officials (a list of all the occurrences can be found in Gradenwitz 1925, p. 232; cf. Tantillo, Bigi 2010, pp. 347-348). Likewise, two vicars of Asia are called sinceritas tua in stone copies of imperial texts (Ablabius in CIL 03, 00352 = CIL 03, 07000 = ILS 6091 = ILCV 0003 (em) = MAMA 07, 00305; Marinus in PPRET 28, where there is a discussion on his office). All the documents are dated to the 4th Century and this confirms the terminus ante quem around 400 AD already suggested.

Less common is prudentia. This virtue appears in two lengthy Roman inscriptions dedicated in 377 AD and 389 AD to the former urban prefect Avianius Symmachus and the annonarian prefect Vincentius Celsus (CIL 06, 01698 (cf. p. 4737) = ILS 1257 = LSA 0342 = EDR 123515, an identical monument to Symmachus was also set up in Constantinople; CIL 06, 01759 (cf. p. 4753) = ILS 1272 = LSA 1464 = EDR 137772). But apart from these later documents, all the other attestations date to the reign of the sons of Constantine. Prudentia tua occurs in eight constitutions of the Theodosian Code between 342 AD and 360 AD, five are addressed to western praetorian prefects (CTh 06, 29, 02; CTh 08, 05, 08; CTh 08, 07, 07; CTh 09, 17, 02; CTh 12, 01, 038; on the recipients, Ulpius Limenius, Flavius Taurus and Vindaeonius Anatolius, see PPRET 34, 46, 47 respectively) and one to a proconsul of Africa (CTh 11, 36, 10), a comes (CTh 07, 01, 04) and an eastern provincial governor (CTh 12, 01, 034). Prudentia is also the virtue attributed to a governor of Baetica in service under Constantius II in an inscription from Malaga (CIL 02, 01972 = LSA 2007, to Q. Attius Granius Caelestinus, consularis: see PLRE I, p. 168) and to a former praeses of Tripolitania in another dedication found in the Severan Forum of Leptis Magna, that dates to the mid-4th Century (IRT 566 = Tantillo, Bigi 2010, pp. 383-385, nr. 37). In this text, as in our inscription, the prudentia of the honorand is incomparabilis, a combination that appears in no other epigraphic document.

In its ensemble the evidence seems to be pointing more towards the period between the death of Constantine and the rise of Julian. But this does little to help us find a suitable candidate for the inscription: the “dramatic” event of the period is the usurpation of Magnentius (350-353 AD; see Delmaire 1997, pp. 112-116; Drinkwater 2000, pp. 131-145; Szidat 2003, pp. 208-214; for the African provinces, Didu 1977, pp. 40-44; Salama 1987, pp. 203-216) and, as already mentioned above, almost nothing is known about his prefects. Anicetus (PLRE I, pp. 66-67), probably the first praetorian prefect of Italy and Africa under the usurper, was killed after few months of service during the “revolt” of Nepotianus and no information survives on his successor. Furthermore, the reference to the nobilitas would imply the involvement of an important representative of the Roman aristocracy, whose nomination to the praetorian prefecture has left no evidence in the ancient sources (on the problematic relationship of Magnentius with the Roman nobility, see now Pierré-Caps 2020, pp. 205-219). Of course, the suggested chronology does not exclude the possibility that an official of Constans or Constantius II, whose damnatio memoriae went unnoticed in our sources, was behind this praetorian prefect.

IRT 611 Lepelley 1981, p. 345, nt. 55 Tantillo, Bigi 2010, pp. 345-348, nr. 21, with photo

EDCS 49100325 EDH 059465 IRT 2009, 611 LSA 2167 TM 202788

Badel C., Le thème de la nobilitas dans l’épigraphie latine impériale (Ier-Ve siècle), MEFRA, 114, 2002, 969-1009 Delmaire R., Les usurpateurs du Bas-Empire et le recrutement des fonctionnaires (Essai de reflexion sur les assises du pouvoir et leurs limites), in Paschoud F., Szidat J. (hrsg.), Usurpationen in der Spätantike, Stuttgart 1997, 111-126 Delmaire R, La damnatio memoriae au Bas-Empire à travers les textes, la législation et les inscriptions, CCG, 14, 2003, 299-310 Didu I., Magno Magnenzio. Problemi cronologici ed ampiezza della sua usurpazione: dati epigrafici, CS, 14, 1977, 11-56 Drinkwater J.F., The Revolt and Ethnic Origin of the Usurper Magnentius (350–353), and the Rebellion of Vetranio (350), Chiron, 30, 2000, 131–159 Gradenwitz O., Heidelberger Index zum Theodosianus, Berlin 1925 Lepelley C., Les cités de l’Afrique romaine au Bas-Empire, Tome II, Notices d’histoire municipale, Paris 1981 Pierré-Caps A., L’instrument d’une légitimité: l’aristocratie romaine face à l’usurpation de Magnence (350-353), Occidente / Oriente, 1, 2020, 205-219 Salama P., L’Empereur Magnence et les provinces africaines, in Huvelin H., Christol M., Gautier G. (éd.), Mélanges de numismatique offerts à P. Bastien à l’occasion de son 75e anniversaire, Wetteren 1987, 203-216 Szidat J., Die Herrschaft der Söhne Konstantins und die Usurpation des comes rei militaris Magnentius: Ein Überblick über die Geschichte der Jahre 337–353, in Guggisberg A. (hrsg.), Der spätrömische Silberschatz von Kaiseraugst. Die neuen Funde. Silber im Spannungsfeld von Geschichte, Politik und Gesellschaft der Spätantike, Augst 2003, 203-214 Tantillo I., Bigi F. (a cura di), Leptis Magna. Una città e le sue iscrizioni in epoca tardoromana, Cassino 2010

patrono ob plurima i[n] se provisio[ne eius con]lata beneficia

⟦Praecipuae nobilitatis ac virtuṭụṃ [o]mnium sed et perpensae iustitiae [ . . . ]++++daeque sinceritatis adque ị[nc]omparabil[i]s prudentiae viro⟧

praefe[c]t[o] praetor[i]o