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

M. Šašel Kos: The gooddess Aecorna in Emona

imagine that a short-lived migration by the Cimbri and Teutons through Noricum - proposed by him as a possible source of the introduction of Aecoma to the territory of Emona - would so deeply affect the religious life of a small epichoric community. Both German tribes defeated a Roman consular army in 113 B.C. at Noreia, but despite their victory left the country and proceeded onwards to the lands of the Helvetii. Neither the regions through which they migrated, nor Noreia itself, can be properly localized, and in any case it is most unlikely that this or any similar ephemeral event would have had any impact on the country, least of all in its religious sphere. It must also be emphasized that Aecorna - of whom, as we have said, six dedications are known - remained one of the most important deities worshipped in Emona and its territory.

The etymology of the name Aequoma / Aecoma is thus far from certain and the similarity with the word aequor could be explained as a chance resemblance to an older name (Etruscan?),7 and, consequently, as some kind of later interpretatio Romana. There could also have been a true resemblance with a word of the same Indo-European stem and the same meaning, belonging to some other, IE language (Venetic?), and sounding only slightly differently. Aequoma / Aecoma might also be a Latin translation of a word with the same meaning of “water surface”. If the name Aequoma is Latin it could be regarded as a regular formation with the adjectival suffix -ina, later reduced to -na, as, for example, the adjective paternus. It would theoretically not be impossible to explain the name as either Etruscan (cf. Laverna > Lavelnas), or Venetic (e.g. ner-ka lemeto.r.na).8

It is nevertheless worth noting that the other meanings mentioned of the word aequor might well suit the region in question. The triangle Nauportus - Emona - Ig is more or less a plain, and considering that the Ljubljana Marsh (perhaps Strabo’s ekoç Aoúysov (7,5,2 c. 314), unless this was the name for Cerknisko Lake) had in pre-Roman times not yet been entirely drained, the meaning of the surface - level of a lake would be very suitable as a composite part of the name of the local Lake (?) or Marsh (?) deity. Water deities are, like hydronyms themselves, the oldest linguistic testimonies of any land. A pre- Roman local water deity is actually known at Emona: Laburus, whose name is attested on an inscription, and whose worship was connected with the river Ljubljanica.9 It has even been argued that from his name the names Ljubljanica, Ljubljana, and Laibach would have been derived.10 Like Laburus, Aecorna would have represented those mysterious water powers which were so essential for man’s life. Sometimes, as in the case of the formerly sinking creek of the Ljubljanica, water would have seemed to come from nowhere. Often it was a beneficent source

(7) Doubtfully on this J. SaSel, Arh. vest. 28 (1977), pp. 335 and 343, who allowed for the possibility that the origin of the goddess was Etruscan, RE, Suppl. 11 (1968), 568. For the Etruscans in the southeastern Alpine region see F. Stare, Die Etrusker und der südöstliche Voralpenraum (in Slov. with German summary), Razprave (Dissertationes) 9/3, Ljubljana 1975, pp. 193-274.

(8) I would like to thank Dr. M. Snoj who kindly examined the linguistic possibilities offered by the name Aequoma, and Professor F. Crevatin (Trieste) for having read the relevant pages. For the Venetic name see J. Untermann, Die venetischen Personennamen, Wiesbaden 1961, p. 26; G.B. Pellegrini-A.L. Prosdocimi, La lingua venetica, Padova 1967, II, p. 129 f.

(9) CIL III, 3840 + p. 2328, 188.

(10) K. OStir, Beiträge zur alarodischen Sprachwissenschaft 1, Vienna-Leipzig 1921, p. 74; B. Saria, RE 16, 2 (1935), 2008 (s.v. Nauportus); cf. J. Kelemina, Razprave (Slov. akad. zn. in urn., cl. II) 1

( 1950), p. 95 ff. ; see also F. Bezlaj, Slovensko vodna imena I, Ljubljana 1956, p, 349 ff.

of life, a useful and profit-bringing means of transport, here and there dangerous on account of the rapids, and destructive during floods, whereas during droughts it subsided to a dangerously low level. Consequently, people would have always endeavoured to propitiate its deity. It is not certain, however, whether Aecorna, too, might be interpreted as a water-goddess, and this suggestion should be regarded only as a probable hypothesis.

Taking into account her local character, it is tempting to interpret her name as belonging to the pre-Roman linguistic stratum. This has not yet been well defined. According to Strabo (7,5,2, c. 314) Nauportus was a Tauriscan settlement, but who its inhabitants were before the Taurisci, is not known. For Emona, no ethnic attribution is known from the ancient sources. It has been proposed - although no decisive proofs are available - that the pre-Celtic population would have been Venetic, and for Ig a Venetic-Istrian origin of the autochthonous inhabitants has been assumed on the basis of some of their names.11 At the moment the only possible approach towards clarifying these problems seems to be the study of personal and place names. The best contribution towards linguistic classification of the personal names in some parts of this territory has been made by R. Katicic.12 The results of his onomastic studies have shown that the autochthonous population in the territory of Emona must have been a rather mixed one. He studied the anthroponymy of two distinct groups within this territory, at Ig and at Smarata near Loz. Both can be assigned to the so-called North-Adriatic onomastic system, but whereas the Ig group displays a strong Celtic influence, the personal names known from Smarata inscriptions are much more homogeneous.13 This can be best explained by the fact that the former settlement (no ancient name is known for either one) is divided from the latter by the mountain chain of Menisija, Bloke, and Krim, and is thus much more open towards the South. Although the Celtic component in the Ig onomastics is very strong, Katicic has nevertheless proven that it is secondary, because it is not so well integrated into derivational families as are the North-Adriatic names. It is interesting, however, that the Celtic names attested on the Ig inscriptions are, with a few exceptions, not names attested in the neighbouring Noricum and Pannonia, but are closely related to other Celtic regions such as Gaul, Britain, Northern Italy, and some parts of the Iberian peninsula. Thus they must belong to some earlier branch of Celtic immigrants who had settled in the area of Ljubljana before the Noricans and the Taurisci came to the south-eastern Alpine region. Possibly they were related to the tribes of the Cami, who are known to have settled elsewhere in the Venetic territory.14 There they mixed with the autochthonous population which can today be

(11) J. SaSel, s.v. Emona, in: RE Suppl. 11 (1968), 540 and 542; for Ig: ibid., 543-544, n. Cf. Id., Prispevki :a zgodovino rintskega Iga, Krónika 7/2 (1959), pp. 117-123,

(12) R. Kati tic, Die einheimische Namengebung von Ig, Godisnjak 6, Centar za balkanoloska ispitivanja 4 (1968), pp. 61-120. Cf. Id., Ancient Languages of the Balkans I (Trends in Linguistics State-ofthe Art Reports 4), The Hague - Paris 1976, p. 182 ff See also F. Lochner-Hüttenbach, Die antiken Personennamen aus Ig bei Ljubljana, Situla 8, Ljubljana 1965, pp. 15-45. See also E. P. Hamp, on the Celtic Names of Ig, Acta Neophilologica 9 (1976), pp. 3-8; Id., Further Remarks on the Celtic Names of Ig, ibid., 11 (1978), pp. 67-63.

(13) R. KatiCiC, Godisnjak 6 (cit. n. 12), p. 105 ff.

(14) This opinion was hypothetically expressed already by J. SaSel, RE (cit. n, 7), 540, and has newly been suggested to me by D. Bozic.

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