Fülöp Gyula (szerk.): Festschrift für Jenő Fitz - Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. B. sorozat 47. (Székesfehérvár, 1996)

H. Devijver: The Monument of an Equestrian Officer(?) from Poetovio, Pannonia Superior

A confrontation of the inscriptions of block 2 with the iconography of block 1 - with the sella curulis - thus becomes necessary. Is the iconography of the first block in keeping with the tenor of the inscriptions of the second block? Or is there an anomaly that argues against the proposed identification?

The sella curulis in a municipal context is clearly the emblem of the local elite of decuriones who held municipal office.19' Thus the sella curulis as such can be seen as the symbol of the municipal career of C. Valerius Tettius Fuscus, known from the inscriptions on block 2: dec(urio) c(oloniae) U(lpiae) T(raianae)

(9) Th. Schäfer (see note 8).

(10) G. Alföldy, Die 'Valerii' in Poetovio, Arheoloski Vestnik 15/16 (1964/65), p. 137-144; Id., Epigraphica, Situla 8 (1965), p. 93-112, p. 99-103, «Revidierte Inschriften aus Poetovio und Aquae Balissae».

(11) G. Alföldy, Die 'Valerii' (see note 10), p. 138. n. 3; H. Df.yijvfr, PME II, V23; PME IV, Supplementum I, V23.

(12) G. Alföldy, Die 'Valerii' (see note 10), p. 140.

(13) G. Alföldy, Die 'Valerii' (see note 10), p. 138 n. 2. C1L III 4049

(cf. 10870)=^j7 No. 389=G. Alföldy, Situla 8 (1965), p. 99-101

Abb. 1 : M. V[al]er[i]us C.f. Pa[p(iria)? Verus?] dec. [c. U. T, P., Ilvjir

i.d., aet. Traiani.

P(oetovionensis), q(uaestor), aedil(is), praef(ectus) fabr(um), Ilvir i(ure) d(icundo), augur. But the central part of the sella curulis displays a weapon-relief! The question then arises how this manifest allusion to a military career of the deceased can be reconciled with the at first glance exclusively municipal career of C. Valerius Tettius Fuscus. Before going further into this specific question, let us first situate Fuscus in the municipal context of Poetovio.

G. Alföldy has made a thorough study of the Valerii of Poetovio,'9 10 11’ from which I take only the elements of importance to the present inquiry. A first notable finding is that, at least during the 2nd century A.D., all the known prominent figures of Poetovio were members of the gens Valeria. The best known representative of the gens is surely M. Valerius Maximianus who after a brilliant military and civilian equestrian career became a senator: a sacratissimis impp. in amplissimum ordinem inter praetorios adlectus.{11) Under Commodus he held an equally outstanding series of senatorial posts.

C. Valerius Tettius Fuscus is the last known decurio and Ilvir of Poetovio from the gens Valeria and is in all likelihood to be situated under Septimius Severus.'12’. He probably belonged to the fifth generation of this noble family that descended from M. Valerius C.f.'13* This aristocratic municipal gens became impoverished in the course of the 3rd century A.D.'14 *’

Let us return to the sella curulis and its possible connection with the career of Tettius Fuscus. On the sella curulis is a cushion on which rests a corona of laurel“51 or of olive twigs.'16’ This corona need not, in my opinion, immediately imply a military context. Though the corona muralis, vallaris, aurea was indeed reserved for equestrian officers, together with the hasta pura and the vexillum,1171 it could also serve as a mere allusion to the fact that a person had entered the ordo equester by way of the transvectio equitum, a ceremony during which the new eques Romanus wore a wreath of braided olive twigs.*181

It is quite possible that the corona can refer to still other occasions - perhaps even on a municipal level - in which it had a symbolic meaning.

The central part of the sella curulis is bordered by two upright arm rests and decorated by a relief with military attributes. From left to right are pictured : a cuirass (lorica) with collar and pteryges on an oval shield; in the centre a round shield with umbo, the parma equestris, over an obliquely placed lance (hasta); then two oval shields placed diagonally over each other; finally a helmet with cheek guards and plume.

A recent study of the funerary monuments of equestrian officers from Italy (1st century A.D.) has made it clear that the loricae with pteryges (often with gorgoneion and cinctorium), the circular shield with umbo (parma equestris), usually, over two crossed lances (hastae), and sometimes the ocreae (greaves) and

(14) G. Alföldy, Die 'Valerii' (see note 10), p. 143.

(15) Th. Schäfer (see note 9), p. 360.

(16) H. Devuver, Equestrian Officers and their Monuments, in Id., The Equestrian Officers of the Roman Imperial Army (Mavors. Roman Army Researches [ed. by M.P. Speidel], Vol. VI), Amsterdam, 1989, p. 416-449, p. 422-424: transvectio equitum-wreaih of olive twigs.

(17) Valerie A. Maxfield, The Military Decorations of the Roman Army, London, 1981, «Equestrian dona», p. 181-185.

(18) H. Devijver (see note 16).

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