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)

broad use of the Illyrian name has no significance for the ethnic attribution of the pre-Celtic populations of the southeastern Alpine areas. Considering the autochthonous personal names of the Emona basin, especially of the important Roman period village at Ig, these populations must have been strongly influenced by the Veneti; Katicic, however, defined a special onomastic group of Ig within the broader northern Adriatic onomastic group (KATICIC, 1968, 61-120; LOCHNER-HÜTTENBACH 1965, 15-45). Names of the pre-Roman divinities worshipped in the southeastern Alpine regions (CHIRASSI COLOMBO 1976, 173-206; SCHERRER 1984, unpublished) represent evidence no less important than personal and geographic names in terms of better defining the Romanized epichoric populations. Altars and other dedications to locally important deities have been found in towns and villages, as well as at remote cult sites. Often merely the name of a divinity has been preserved on the inscriptions, with no epithets or reliefs that would better define it. Thus it is often difficult to distinguish the true nature and extent of their influence. Each region, particularly if it was enclosed by natural borders such as hills and mountains, major rivers, deep valleys or swamps, was a world unto itself, it was settled by people who spokctheir own language or dialect, had their own customs, and worshipped their own gods. Sometimes an epichoric deity could have been more universally venerated, known in several districts and regions within an ethnically uniform area, or worshipped in an even broader context. It also cannot be excluded that a seemingly Roman divinity may have concealed an autochthonous deity, thus notably Silvanus and the Nymphs (RENDIC-MIOCEVTC 1989, passim). Aecorna (known on a Republican building inscription from Nauportus in the earlier form of her name, Aequorna) was an important local goddess whose worship in the Emona basin is documented on five insriptions; she is additionally attested on a dedication found in Savaria (Szombathely), and erected by a community of settlers from Emona who lived at Savaria (RIUl, 135: Aecornae \ Aug(ustae) sac(rum) \ Emonienses \ qui |5 consistunt \flnibus

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Savar(iae) \ v(otum) s(olverunt) l(ibentes) m(erito)). Elsewhere she is not documented - it may thus be concluded that her worship was in one way or another related to the phenomenon of the Emona Marshes, a typical geographic feature of the Emona basin which decisively shaped its life, dictated its specific settlement pattern, and determined the construction of the road network. Her cult is attested at Nauportus as early as the period of Caesar: she must have been one of the most important - if not the most important - divinities of the Roman vicus at Nauportus, as may be concluded from the fact that the magistri vici supervised the construction of her sanctuary (and probably also a portico belonging to it, see CIL III 3777) on behalf of the village community (CIL III 3776 = ILS 4876: P. Petronius P. l(ibertus) \ Amphio, | С Fabius С l(ibertus) | Corbo, \ mag(istri) vici aedem \ Aequor(nae) de vi(ci) \ s(ententia) ffaciendam) coir(averunt). At Emona a dedication was set up to her by an upper class devotee, R Cassius Secundus, the prefect of the ala Britannica milliaria (A., J. SASEL 1977, 450-458). His high social status confirms the important position the worship of the goddess occupied at Emona, and the Emonan origin of R Cassius Secundus may be regarded as almost certain. Three small votive inscriptions dedicated to Aecorna were discovered at Castle Hill (AU 148-150), suggesting that a small sanctury may have been located on this dominant position commanding an excellent view of the Marshes. Aequorna/ Aecorna may be of Etruscan origin, and it seems that she fits well into the Pantheon of local northern Adriatic female deities, such as the Venetic Reitia, Heia/Eia from Pola, Nesactium, and the island of Cissa (present-day Pag), the Liburnian Ika, Iria Venus, Venus Anzotica, and Latra, and others less known (SASEL KOS 1992, 5-12). Important local deities were divinities of streams and rivers, since water has always been the most indispensable natural resource on which any human being based his living. An altar to Laburus, elsewhere unattested, was discovered just outside Ljubljana along the Emona/Nauportus River (present-day Ljubljanica), at the section of perilous rapids near the castle of Fuzine (Kaltenbrun in CIL III 3840 + p.2328, 188). With progressing Romanization, these divinities were often worshipped under the guise of a more universal Neptune and/or the Nymphs, such as a dedication from Emona, erected on behalf of Cassia Clementilla by an unnamed person, probably her relative (CIL III 13400 + p. 2328,26: Neptun(o) | etNymph(is) \pro \ Cassia \ Cleme\ntilla \ v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)). Cassia Clementilla undoubtedly belonged to a merchant family: a member of the same gens set up an altar to Savus and Adsalluta in the sanctuary of both gods along the Savus River, at the hamlet of Sava in the territory of Celeia (CIL III 11684). River traffic was very important at Nauportus and Emona, which is further confirmed by the existence of a collegium naviculariorum at Emona (AU 178), as well as by an inscription commemorating the construction of a sanctuary of Neptune at Bistra near Nauportus by L. Servilius Sabinus, a merchant from Aquileia inscribed in the voting-tribe of the Aquileian citizens, Velina (CIL III 3778: Neptuno \ Aug(usto) sacr(um) \ L. Servilius L. f(ilius) \ Vel(ina) Sabinus \ aedem\ etporticum \ fecit \ pecunia sua). Bistra is a cool and shady site, a cult site par excellence, with plenty of streams and pools and a touch of a magic atmosphere, where a sacred grove must undoubtedly have existed in antiquity, most probably earlier than the sanctuary of Neptune. The significance of the river traffic on the Emona/Nauportus and Savus Rivers is also reflected in the legend of the Argonauts who would have been returning from Colchis with the golden fleece along the Danubius/Ister, Savus, and Emona/Nauportus Rivers, and thence by way of the Adriatic to Greece. Neptune was also worshipped near the confluence of the Savus and Corcoras (present-day Krka) Rivers, beneath the village of Catez in the ager of Neviodunum (CIL III 14354, 22: Medus \ С Trotedi \ negotiators servus) \ Neptuno \ Oviano | [—). An altar, only fragmentarily preserved, was set up to Neptunus Ovianus by one Medus, a slave of a 18