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)

As we see it on ground of the inscriptions and archaeological finds, the sacred areas in Pannónia were protected by stone walls and inside of this stone wall several buildings must have taken place, according to the analogies. On the first place we can mention the lodgement of the so-called sexton. Actually he was the warden of the place who took part in the rites and was similarly in charge of the property of the religious community (WEISGERBER 1975,20,79). According to an inscription {CIL XIII, 4149) at the place of pilgrimage at Pelm (Gerolstein) an account rendered in 124 stated a sum collected which was equivalent to ca. 100 000 sesterces. Larger sacred areas had landed properties and pastures but when these were lacking, at every cult place allotments in kind were expected, which meant occasionally large fortunes on the occasion of festivals; beyond these gifts from the congregation were accumulated (POCZY 1980, 15), among them raw material for the aims of sacrifices and livestock. Such valuables must have be stored. In temple areas similar to the Pannonian ones the animals were worked up on the premise: in the case of Aquincum and Brigetio we may take it almost for sure that the utilization of fur, skin, meat and bone was sold to the neartown workshops. The circle of the healing deities becomes complete with the nymphs. Their popularity is proven by the plentitude and frequent occurrence of their representations and the offerings made to them. The average man was rather distant from the more official cult of Aesculapius and Hygiea, at the same time he found more easily a connection with the nymphs. These gay, young female figures were hidden in the groves, and healed primarily with he divine power of the thermal and mineral springs. Their monuments came - as understandable - from the neighbourhood of mineral springs. (KÁDÁR 1981, 63 and map). The nymphs were, similarly to the Three Graces, represented keeping tightly together. The young girls stood in draping garments or nude, they hold a shell in their lap, as e.g. on a relief of Aquae Iasae. The finest documents of the Nymph-cult came to light in Southern Pannónia from the watering place Aquae Iasae (Varazdinske Top lice). At the mineral springs of this little town every summer the well-to-do citizens of the province and the leaders of the public administration took the waters, according to the names preserved on the inscriptions (VIKIC - BELANCIC - GORENC 1961). Several altars of the deities, the "Nymphae perennes" symbolizing the inexhaustible wells and the running water, remained in Pannónia. One of these was found in the neighbourhood of Gorsium (FITZ 1976, 42.), set up by a high priest of the ara of Pannónia Inferior, i.e. the state religion expressed in the provincial cult. The forum of Gorsium was (according to the excavator) in the times of the Emperor Trajan decorated with ornamental fountains (FITZ 1976, 42), which were attached to the wall of the forum in terraced shape. The supporting walls are richly proportioned, remembering us, according to the taste of the period, to an architectural solution resembling the upstage of the Roman theatre. Between columns niches were formed which were connected by an architecture closed by vaulting. The ornamental wall was broken by three stairs leading to the Capitoline temple (FITZ 1976, 92). In the two niches between the stairs an oval basin each was placed, one decorated with the figure of a river deity, the other with the representation of nymphs. On both reliefs the figures rest on a jug turned upside down, pouring water into the basin. The water supply was led through lead-pipes to the fountains. This picture type developed some centuries previously, it is represented similarly e.g. on a wall picture of Pompei. In the representations of the Gorsium nymphaeum the orientalizing attire of the water deities is unusual. This gives a local colour to the finest open-air sculpture preserved in Pannónia. 35