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 decurio Claudius Pompeius Faustus might have been an influential magistrate of the town because on one of his two inscriptions, dated to different times, he is designed as the leader of the rite. In Brigetio - similarly to Aquincum - in the sanctuary area of Fons Salutis also the Oriental deities, Dolichenus and Sol invictus, took place (BARKOCZI 1946, 42). The festivities were finished in Aquincum, Brigetio, Savaria and Scarbantia in the amphitheatre. The participants of the procession could watch the games from the tribune which could hold a great number of onlookers; the games were connected in some form with the significance of the day. According to MartiaHs the procession went on the occasion of evening games in the light of flaming torches to the theatre, where the main organizer of the festivities gave the sign for the beginning of the festivity by offering up a sacrifice (POCZY 1980, 24). The North-South aquaeductus of Aquincum was constructed for providing the legionary camp with water supply: its primary purpose was serving the army. The conduit was built by the army, which is indicated by bricks of the legio II adiutrix. We know also that the conduit was amplified with the increasing of the demands, in the 3rd century renovations were made also at the water draining places and this activity took place also with the participation of the army. It is therefore conspicuous that on none of the altars, found in the well-houses "in situ ", we find any members of the army, not veterans either. The only exception may be the altar of the cornicularius Publius Aelius Tertius, but this monument was not found at its original place. The persons devoting altars are civils, who sacrified in the sacred area in the 2nd century in the name of the residents of the municipium, and in the 3rd century in that of the colonia (POCZY 1972, 28-30). In Aquincum the archaeological excavations brought to light the ruins of buildings, standing in the sacred grove of the well cult. In Brigetio thanks to a stroke of luck, we can reconstruct with the aid of several inscriptions (altars and building inscriptions) in great lines the outward image of a similar sacred place. The region, named after the deity Apollo-Grannus, was built around the Brigetio Fons Salutis, i.e. the sanctuary area personifying the mineral well. The place is also here near one well, feeding the aqueduct of the town, resp. the legionary camp, South of the legionary camp, on the border of the way leading to Tata. The Brigetio monuments give a lucky complete the Aquincum results favourably (PÓCZY 1980, 14). One of the inscriptions (PAULOVICS 1941, 124 = RIU 377) gives the following information: Apollini et Hygiae Q(uintus) Ulp(ius) Felix Aug(ustalis) m(unicipii) Brig(etionis) porticum a portis (duabus) ad fontem Salutis a solo inpedi(i)s suis fecit et ad epulas privileg(io) colleg(ii) centon(ariorum) haberi iussit praefe(cto) Iul(io) Sabino q(uin)q(uennale) Praesente et Extric(ato) c(on)s(ulibus) noni(s) Nov(embribus?). According to the interpretation of L. Barkóczi (RIU II, 377) the date June 5 may be taken also in consideration. The date is the year 217. The second inscription (CIL III 10971 = RIU 376) is attached to the previous one:[templum Apollinis] Gran[ni cum co]lumn[is et portici]bus sui[ s a Quinto Ulpio] Felice [augustali et cul]tore loci [restitutum]. According to the interpretation of Paulovics we have to start from the fact that in Brigetio the temple of Apollo Grannus stood in the neighbourhood of the legionary camp. This temple was in 217 restituted and adorned with a porticus by Q. Ulp. Felix, magistrate, on his own expenses, then according to the second inscription he connected the same temple with a roofed promenade hall. According to Paulovics the matter in question is an ornamental gate with a double entrance. In Barkóczi's reading the text mentions the southern gate of the legionary camp. Altogether the inscriptions would speak of a a sacred area with a temple, roofed portico, holy well, where common meals (CIL 111,11042 = RIU 503) and on the occasion of feasts social gatherings were held. It is remarkable that the same buildings are enumerated on the building inscriptions of a well group, feeding the aquaeductus of a Numidian town. The stone monument was erected by the emperors of the house of the Severi. The date is some years previous to that of the Brigetio inscriptions. North of the town of Thamugadi-Timgad, at the starting point of the municipal aquaeductus, a sanctuary and basin were built and the place was named, according to a fragmentary inscription from 203, on the occasion of a visit of Septimius Severus Aqua Septimiana Felix. Another, more detailed building inscription relates that the temple area was enlargened and decorated by Caracalla: at the entrance he made an ornamental gate erected, at the wells a park encircled by a fence with bronze trellis work and a portico was laid in 212 on his order (POCZY 1980, 17). From the three sanctuaries the middle one has larger measures than the two others, the three-lobed oramental gate and the porticus - mentioned in the inscription - is still visible in the axe of the central temple. It is conceivable that in the centre of the building group, outlined after the Brigetio inscriptions, a pediment temple stood encircled by a porticus and probably sacrifice places, hidden among the trees belonged also to the building. According to the evidence of reliefs, wall paintings and mosaics a great number of contemporaneous representations was made from similar sacred groves. Pliny the Younger gives in a letter a more plastic description, if possible, of such a temple area than the representations: "... The augurs admonished me that I had to restore and enlargen the Cerestemple standing on my estate. It is a very old and very narrow building indeed, although it is visited on a certain day by a great crowd... I think it would be a generous and pious deed if I restored the temple as finely as possible completing it by a portico. The former one would be for the goddess, the latter for the people. That's why I should like to ask you to buy for me four marble columns, their quality is indifferent... And about the portico....we cannot build it round the temple because one side of this is bordered by a river of steep banks, the other by the road. Beyond the road a large field, opposite to the temple, very apt for building. " (Pliny the Younger, Epistolae IX, 39.) 34