Fitz Jenő (szerk.): Religions and Cults in Pannonia. Exhibiton an Székesfehérvár, Csók István Gallery 15 May - 30 September 1996 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: A. sorozat 33. (1998)

The sanctuary of the procuratorial palace In the imperial period the Emperor shared the adoration of the gods, his person symbolized the unity and unviolability of the Imperium Romanum. Sanctuaries of this official cult were unearthed in several places in Aquincum, so in the military town, in the procuratorial palace. At the entrance of the buiilding, which had more levels than only one, a spacious sanctuary courtyard opened with a chapel and fanum. Taking up his post every procurator placed here a votive altar as expression of his fidelity to the State. Hercules The Greek Herakles, son of Zeus and Alkmene, was born as a human being but with his heroic life, triumphing over all evil, merited immortality. He was the most popular, frequently represented hero of Graeco-Roman mythology. In Pannónia he was especially liked: during the menacing war of the 3rd century he was the symbol of the army, defending in heroic combats Italy and the whole Empire. He often occurs on the funerary sculpture as well, together with Alcestis, whom he led back to her husband from the realm of Death. One of his Pannonian sanctuaries came to light in Ajka: it was built at the end of the 2nd century. In this time, during the reign of Septimius Severus - the Emperor who venerated in him the patron god of his birthplace, Lepcis Magna-the cult of Hercules arrived to a new flourishing. Deities of the Indigenous inhabitants At the southern border station of Pannónia, at Topusko, in a hidden altar ensemble containing several altars dedicated to Silvanus one occured with the names of Vidasus and Thana. The male-female divine couple named in the language of the illyrian-pannonian aborigines corresponds to Silvanus and Diana. On the Silvanus altar of Siscia the god bears the epitheton magla, which is from the language of the pre-roman Celtic inhabitants. Isis The cult of Isis and Osiris of Egyptian origin was widespread in Pannónia as early as in the 1st century. Isis belongs to the most important deities of the Egyptian religion, is the queen of the gods, a mother goddess, who gives wealth and luck on earth to her devotees promising them a happy other-world life. Her consort, Osiris, is the symbol of eternity, the god of other-world life, murdered by his brother Seth but resurrected by his wife. Iseum For the alexandrian deities - Isis, Sarapis, Anubis and the Sphinxes - a large sacred disctrict was built up in the eighties of the 2nd century in Colonia Claudia Savaria, to which a great colonnade was added in the early 3rd century, presumably on the occasion of the visit of the Emperor Septimius Severus. The courtyard formed and the building of the sanctuary (42x70 m) reflects alexandrian influence transmitted by Rome. The devotees of the cult were wealthy citizen, mainly merchants. The ceremonies of the Isis cult might have ceased in the early 4th century. luppiter Dolichenus The sun god venerated in the Syrian Doliche, identified with luppiter. The beginning of his cult can be set on the age of the Emperor Hadrian, the early 2nd century. The cult was promoted in Pannónia by Syrian soldiers and merchants. He is a war-like god, represented in army clothes, standing on the back of a bull, in one hand a two-edged axe, in the other a thunderbolt. His golden age can be set to the period of the Severi, the late 2nd and early 3rd century. His sanctuaries, the dolichenums, so the earliest one in Carnuntum, that of Brigetio (Ószőny) and Vetus Salina (Adony) were situated in the neighbourhood of military camps. His sanctuaries were after 235 demolished. The Dolichenus sanctuary of Vetus Salina (Adony) was built in the decads after the Markomannic Wars, at the end of the 2nd century. Its interior (6x17 m) was, on ground of the fragments of wall paintings and columns unearthed, divided. According to its measures the building had to be classified among the medium-sized sanctuaries on the Danube-Rhine limes. It was destroyed about 238: deliberately demolished, than set on fire. In its inventary the most characteristical relics of the cult are the signa, triangular sheets with relief decoration. On ground of the signum holders there were 3 or 4 items, one of them the largest Dolichenus-triangle known. In the material of the Dolichena the Sol bust used as a badge and the horse statuette, belonging to the decoration of the carrying-char, occur for the first time. 123