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)

head scarf of the kings (Carnuntum I, 75 sq, No. 49, 52 and 77, No. 1) in Egyptizing style belonged to the decoration of this Serapeum. Two Serapis busts in terra cotta and bronze (Carnuntum I, 79, No. 10 and 11) remind us to the colossal cult statue of the god in the Serapeum of Alexandria. As for the bronze statuettes of Isis we have here a synchretistic form as Isis-Fortuna or Panthea. A bronze figure with elephant headdress can be interpreted as the personification of Alexandria or Aegyptus or the province Africa (Carnuntum I, 77 sq, No. 2-5). Representations of Iuppiter Ammon are shown by three relief médaillons (Carnuntum I, 79 sq, No. 13-15) of the god in the type of the bearded Zeus head with ram horns. From Alexandria come the sporadic objects of the glyptics (Carnuntum I, 80 sq, No. 16-20), who represent, besides of Isis carrying the sistrum and Serapis, also idyllic scenes of the Egyptian fauna and flora, further some magic gemmas with the cock-headed Anguipes (Carnuntum I, 69 sq, No. 17-19) who occurs twice with the magic formula Abrasax on the reverse. In Carnuntum the find of a sarcophagus with a mummified corpse (SWOBODA 1964, 199 and 294 n.7) is usually counted among the Aegyptiaca, without being proven that the defunct was of Egyptian origin or belonged to the devotees of Isis. The ushebtis exhibited in the museum came from different findplaces and regrettably not as grave goods of this mummy. So the only Egyptian person we know presently as having dwelt in Carnuntum is the Egyptian priest-magician Arnuphis, whom we know from Cassius Dio (71,8, 4) as belonging to the retenue of Marcus Aurelius and to whose magical force even the rain wonder in the land of the Quades was attributed; an inscription in Aquileia proves that he was a devotee of Isis (VIDMAN 1970, 119 sq). For enlivening the reconstructed picture of the Egyptian cult life in Carnuntum it would be desirable if the epigraphic proof of the Serapis-Isis temple were followed in the next future by archaeological evidence. We have a more complete picture for the cult of Iuppiter Dolichenus on ground of the probative force of the epigraphic material from the Dolichenus sanctuary (HÖRIG-SCHWERTHEIM, 1987, 143 sq No. 216. 111. 13), which is paralleled on Austrian ground only by the Dolichenum of Virunum in the neighbouring Noricum, while in Pannónia Superior we have cult places of the god in Brigetio and Savaria (?), in Pannónia Inferior in Vetus Salina. From the votive inscriptions of the altars, votive tablets and the relief stele5 we get the evidence that the cult personal of Dolichenus consisted of sacerdotes - priests, curator - finance clerks and scribae - clerks, where the names of these functionaries point in a great majority to an oriental origin. Among the founders we find army officers, among them a centurio each of the legions 10 and 14, but also civilians in the same number with Italic names. The devotions are for the welfare of the Emperor (Commodus!) as for the prosperity of the donators and their family. From the sanctuary come two almost life-size representations of the god. The relief stele shows the tempest god and celestial deity from Doliche, identified with the Roman Iuppiter, according to the original, oriental picture schema standing on the bull, on the bearded head the Phrygian cap, in his hands the double axe and the thunderbolt. In the military attire of the god we can, though, recognize a conscious assimilation to the attire of a commander worn by the Emperor. Dolichenus appears resembling a Roman emperor also on the marble statue on which the bull is not shown as a postament but in reduced size, as an attribute, recumbent by the side of the god. Outside the sanctuary, on the area of the canabae, another smaller statuette (CCID, No. 230 Pl. XLII) was found, showing the god in an oriental civilian attire with an oversized double axe in the right, stepping with his left foot on the bull recumbent at his feet. The fourth representation of Dolichenus found in Carnuntum is a silver relief of the god (CCID, No. 233 Pl. XLV) on a bull galloping to the left; it was an applique of one of the characteristic triangular tablets stuck standart-like on poles. In some bronze relief-appliques of Sol and Luna as in the bronze statuettes of Victoria floating over a globe we have to recognize equipments of further similar Dolichenus tablets. On the historical or religious political motives which gave the local heavenly god of the place Doliche in the area of Kommagene, annexed in 72 A.D. to the province Syria, such an over-regional importance widespread in the Imperium, we can only cogitate. The transplantation of the cult to the Danube limes is likely to be attributed to troops of legionaries from Kommagene who participated in the oriental military expedition - e.g. the 10th legion stationed since the times of Trajan in Vindobona. The earliest proof for a veneration of Dolichenus in Carnuntum (and for that in general in the Western provinces) a building inscription dedicated to the welfare of the Emperor Hadrian, to be dated between 128 and 138 A.D., that was erected by a juvenile association "iuventus colens Jovem Dolichenum ", which refers to the building of the gate and walls of a sacred area. The inventory of the Dolichenum proves that the dedications increased only under Commodus (180-193). After a flourishing under the Severi it seems that in Carnuntum the activity of the cult place diminished with the dedication to Dolichenus for the Emperor Maximinus Thrax (235-238) (CCID, No. 232); the cult in general came to an end over the whole Empire with the demolition of the main sanctuary Doliche by the Sasanids about the middle of the 3rd century. 5 CCID, No. 218-229. Not from the Dolichenum but from the Pfaffenberg comes the Iuventus inscription quoted under No. 217. The alphabet brick No. 227 has to be excluded as not found on the area of the sanctuary. 39