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

been discovered, and / or else, that it was not customary for these people to erect to their deities dedications on stone. They coiild have dedicated to their deity, or deities, ex-voto objects, as did the Veneti; these, however, either have not yet been found, or were made of perishable materials.

If an analysis is made of the names of the dedicants who set up the inscriptions to Aecorna, we get the following results. The oldest dedication, that from Nauportus, was erected by the two vicomagistri P. Petronius P. l(ibertus) Amphio and C. Fabius C. l(ibertus) Corbo. Nauportus had the status of a Roman vicus during the late Republican period, but it was an important emporium, municipii instar, as Tacitus defined it in Ann. 1, 20,

1. Both magistri were charged by the village community to have the sanctuary of Aequoma (note the archaic spelling!) built. In a recent study it has been shown that both gentilicia are well attested in Aquileia and elsewhere in the Cisalpine Gaul, so there is hardly any doubt that both were freedmen of the Aquileian families.19 Amphio is a common name among slaves and freedmen in northern Italy; this name, even if Greek, bears no relation at all to the ethnic origin of its bearer, but only to his social status.20 The cognomen Corbo is twice attested in Noricum in the form of Corbus.21 22 In considering the worship of Aecoma at Nauportus, another Republican inscription may be taken into account. The second, and only other known pair of magistri vici- Q. Annaius Q. l(ibertus) Torravius and M. Fulginas M. l(ibertus) Philogenes - supervised the building of a porticus,21 which had most probably belonged to the aedes of Aequoma.23 These two persons likewise came from households of families from northern Italy. The family of Q. Annaius is attested in the Republican Aquileia,2* but the cognomen Torravius is elsewhere unknown. Its closest parallel is the nomen Turravius, known from a long dedication to Juppiter Optimus Maximus and other gods from Celeia. The altar was probably erected by an unknown collegium sometime at the end of the 2nd or beginning of the 3rd century A.D.: the name of the dedicant in the 11th line is Turravius Casto[r].2S Both names are related to the widespread North-Adriatic name Turrus and its derivatives.26 The cognomen of the freedman, Torravius, can consequently be regarded as an epichoric name, and it may be assumed that he was of local origin. He might have come to Aquileia as a slave (slave trade is well documented for the eastern Alpine region),2’ and was later manumitted.

(19) M. SaSel Kos, Nauportus: Literary and Epigraphical Sources, in: Jana Horvat. Nauportus (Vrhnika), Ljubljana 1990. pp. 143-159.

(20) H. Solin, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der griechischen Personennamen in Rom I (Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 48), Helsinki 1971, p. 146 ff.: A.M. Duff, Freedmen in the Early Roman Empire, Cambridge 1958.

(21) CIL III, 6497 « Hainzmann I, 607 from the area of Virunum (Tiefen); CIL III, 11743 = E. Weber, Die römerzeitlichen Inschriften der Steiermark, Graz 1969, No. 26 from Kugeistein in the area of Graz.

(22) CIL III, 3777 (+ p. 10719) = I2, 2286 = ILLRP. 34 = M. SaSel Kos, in: Nauportus (cit. n. 19), p. 149, No. 3.

(23) B. Saria, Eine emonenser Landsmannschaft in Savaria, Pannonia - Könyvtár 8, Pécs 1935, p. 4 ff. (See also the same contribution in Slov. in Glasnik Muzejskega druStva :a Slovenijo 12, Ljubljana 1931, pp. 5-10).

(24) A. Calderini, Aquileia Romana, ricerche di storia e di epigráfia, Milano 1930, p. 451; G. Bandelli, Ricerche sulla cohnizzazione romana della Gallia cisalpina, Roma 1988. pp. 150-151.

(25) CIL III, 5191.

(26) See G. Alfóldy, Die Namengebung der Urbevölkerung in der

römischen Provinz Dalmatia, Beiträge zur Namenforschung 15

(1964), p. 61; R. KaTiCic, Godisnjak 3, Cenlar za balkonotokká

ispitivanja 1 (1965), p. 56; J. Untermann, op. cit. (n. 8), Karte 13.

The earlier mentioned four magistri vici from Nauportus, liberti of the prominent Republican Aquileian families, as may be assumed with great probability, settled sometime under Caesar, or even earlier, in the most eastern outpost of the then Cisalpine Gaul,28 as exponents of the Aquileian municipal nobility. However, judging by the cognomina of two of them - Corbo and Torravius - we may suppose that at least these two belonged to the autochthonous population. Rather than assuming that they brought the cult of Aecoma from Italy, it may be concluded that they had a sanctuary built for an important local deity.

At a later date it is often difficult to detect the names of the formerly local population under the cover of the romanized onomastic formula. A large percentage of inhabitants living in Emona under the principate had come from northern Italy29 to settle in this border city between Italy, Noricum, and Pannonia.30 The dedications to Aecoma in Emona all seem to have been erected by the local residents. Three very small dedications camp to light in 1820 on the Castle Hill of Ljubljana, where a shrine to the goddess has very plausibly been postulated.31 The dedication to her by C. Aemilius Felix was engraved on a small rectangular socle for supporting a two feet high column of white limestone. His gentilicium is fairly frequent everywhere, including the provinces, and especially in Pannonia. In Dalmatia it is mostly borne by Italic settlers, in Libumia also by the epichoric population.32 In Emona of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. Aemilii seem to have been well established. This is confirmed by an elegant funerary monument to a slave Flavos, whose master was L. Aemilius Berullus, according to Mócsy probably of north-italic origin.33 The second dedication discovered on the Castle Hill is a small altar of limestone, erected by an Auctus. This is a common slave name, especially wide-spread in Italy and the Celtic regions.34 The third is a small limestone aedicula in which an efigy of the goddes must have stood, dedicated by C. Cl(audius) Priam(us). His Greek cognomen, which is attested mostly in Italy among slaves and freedmen,35 almost certainly indicates a freedman. Other Claudii are not known in Emona, but the nomen which is related to the bestowal of citizenship rights under Claudius and Nero is frequent enough in the neighbouring towns, especially in Pannonia.36

The last dedication to Aecoma which came to light in Emona, is a basis, probably for a statue of the goddess, erected by P. Cassius Secundus during the years A.D. 107—110.37 As it was

(27) J. SaSel, Contributo alla conoscenza del commercio con gli schiavi norici ed illírjei alla fine del periodo repubblicano. Atti del III Congresso Intern, di Epigráfia Greca e Latina, Roma 1959, pp. 143-147.

(28) J. SaSel, Zur Frühgeschichte der XV. Legion und zur Nordostgrenze der Cisalpina zur Zeit Caesars, in : Römische Geschichte, Altertumskunde und Epigraphik. Festschrift A. Betz, Vienna 1985, pp. 547-555.

(29) A. Mócsv, op. cit. (n. 16), p. 129 ff. and passim; J. SaSel, RE Suppl 11 (1968), 566.

(30) J. SaSel, Zur verwaltungstechnischen Zugehörigkeit Emonas, AArchHung 41 (1989), pp. 169-174.

(31) J. SaSel, Ljubljanski Grad v starem veku, Krónika 10 (1962) pp. 112-116.

(32) G. Alföldy, Die Personennamen in der römischen Provinz Dalmatia, Heidelberg 1969, p. 55; A. Mócsy, op. cit. (n. 16), p. 150.

(33) AU, 187; Mócsy, op. cit. (n. 16), p. 201.

(34) G. Alföldy, op. cit. (n. 32), p. 159.

(35) ibid., p. 271.

(36) A. Mócsy et alii. Nomenclator, s.v.; Id., Bevölkerung (cit. n. 16), p. 149; Alföldy, op. cit. (n. 32), p. 37 ff.

(37) J. SaSel, Arh. vest. 28 (1977), 334 ff. See also H. Devijver, Prosopographia militiarum equestrium quae fuerunt ab Augusto ad Gallienum IV, Suppl. 1, Leuven 1987, pp. 1490-1491, C 97 ter.

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