RomanArmyTalk

Hi all,

Robert (Fectio) has posted this image of a tombstone from Aquileia elsewhere to illustrate iconographical depictions of crested 'Intercisa IV' Late Roman helmets.


I had previously seen the soldier at the left, wearing the helmet but, what is doing the man at the middle? Is he drinking from a beaker?
What about the figure to the right?
What does the inscription say?
Has anybody got a better pic?
Oh and if any of you has the moon at hand, I'd like to have it too!

Thanks in advance!

Aitor

I also have one in color, but maddingly small as well! :x

A pity, that stone looks pretty interesting! hock:

Aitor

Some kind of trumpet thing ?

No, I'm afraid...
The object looks more like a Late Roman high, ring-footed glass beaker... :?

Aitor

As for the content of the inscription, it is very hard to read the text from the picture. Perhaps somebody knows it CIL entry code so we can have the full transscription.

Of course the inscription is incomplete. It misses the most part of the right side. The only conclusive things I could decipher is "natus in Dardania" (born in Dardania, i.e. in Moesia Superior) and that it mentions a certain age (vixit annos...)

Nothing much, I know

Sorry.

Hans

I think I have a better picture of this stone in a book somewhere. Someone remind me. :wink:

Quote:Perhaps somebody knows it CIL entry code so we can have the full transscription.

Seems to be AE 1982, 383 (= AE 1991, 772):

<H>ic ego sum positus Ma[---]/nes natus in Dardani[a cum --- coniuge ---] / qu(a)e vixit annos bis qua[ternos mecum sine ull]/a querella in pace decessi [militavi inter Mo]/esiacos annis tricinta(!) / et quinque ex/{x}ibi ex protecto/ribus depositus / situs(!) diem quintu(m) Kalenda/s A(u)gustas c[o]nsules(!) / Decentio Caesa/ri et <P>aulo / consulibus

Any the wiser?!

That's it! Many thanks, Duncan!
So our man was a protector.
And now, we're only lacking a better image... 8)

Aitor

Thanks Duncan for the full transcription.

The date at the bottom indicates the first of August 352 AD. Decentius was an usurpator of Constantius II. He was declared Caesar in Milan in 350. He commited suicide in Sens on october 18 353 AD.

Hans

Quote:I think I have a better picture of this stone in a book somewhere. Someone remind me.

Jasper, would that be...

SPEIDEL, M.P., 1990, The Army at Aquileia, the Moesiaci Legion, and the Shield Emblems in the Notitia Dignitatum, in: Saalburg-Jahrbuch 45, 68-72. ?

The same article also appears in one of the article collections from Speidel. I guess it is 'Roman Army Studies II' from 1992.

Thanks Hans and Florian! We're going forwards!

Aitor

Hi Florian,
No, it's not that. I would love to have RAS II, but no luck so far. It's in a little book about Aquileia.

I think the middle person definetely is drinking something... like you find on a lot of greek and roman tombstones, egyptian stelae etcetera.

M.VIB.M.

Being from the museum of Aquilieia, the museum caption tells:

Dated by the consuls' names 352 C.E., it's an imperial christian guardsman from Asia minor, portrayed in three different moments: on the left as soldier serving the army, on the right in civilian clothing, on the centre while drinking in the refrigerium act, as symbol of the reaching of the aeternal peace as blessed soul.

Valete,