Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 24. 1986-1988 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1990)
Szemle – Rundschau - Fitz Jenő: The probable date of the Caesarea inscription in honor of L. Valerius Valerianus. p. 161–162.
Alba Regia, XXIV, 1990 J. FITZ THE PROBABLE DATE OF THE CAESAREA INSCRIPTION IN HONOR OF L. VALERIUS VALERIANUS After studying the inscription of Caesarea in 1981 in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, M. P. Speidel published several completions and corrections of the text. These emendations have substantially changed our knowledge of the career of L. Valerius Valerianus an outstanding and successful military leader in the civil war of A.D. 193-97 (1985, 321-326): L. Valerio Valeriano, p[roc. prouinc] / Syriae Palaest., prouin. [ ], I praeposito summe [feliciss. exped.J I Mesopotamenae adufersus Arabes J, / praepos. uexil. feliciss. [expedit.] / urbic. itemq. Asianae [aduersus] / hostes publicos, prfaep. eq. gentium] / peregrinarum aduerfsus — J, I proc. Cypri, praef. aflae I Hispan.J / Campagonum in Dacfia, trib. chort. I] / miliariae Hemesefnorum с R. inj I Pannónia, praef, chofrt. inj j Pannónia. / Meuius Romanus, > [leg. VI Ferr.J / /. с Antoninianae , [strator] eius, uiro ifncomparaj/bili. While resolving several uncertainties and problems, the emendations of the fragmentary inscription also raise some new questions, particulary in the interpretation of the late stage of Valerianus cursus honorum. In 195/96, following the Mesopotamian campaign, Valerianus left his troops and twice held the office of procurator. His first term of office is unknown; during the second he managed the finances of Syria Palaestina with the rank of ducenarius. The inscription discussed here was put up in his honor by a centurio of legio VI Ferrata stationed in the province. Because of the legion's honorific title, Antoniniana, I previously dated this post of Valerianus to the period of Caracalla (Fitz 1969, 126-140). After re-reading the inscription, however, I find it improbable, that a successful general of the civil war, a partisan of Septimius Severus and leading member of his staff, would have to wait fifteen years to obtain his second procuratorship. On a more realistic estimate, he must have functioned in Palaestina in the first years of the third century. But what of the honorific tittle Antoniniana, which Caracalla did not begin to confer before the spring of 212, as every securely dated inscription testifies? In order to resolve this apparent contradiction, Speidel relied on a recent paper according to which the honorific title Antoniniana is found for the first time during the reign of Septimius Severus (Lőrincz 1982, 142-148). On the very poorly preseved inscription the title is indeed clearly legible ; but the reading of the consuls' names is very difficult. Against this uncertain document there stands a mass of unequivocal evidence. Ranging from Domitian to Diocletian, the hundreds of imperial honorific titles we know so far have one characteristic in common : they are all derived from the name of (1) I previously restored [cornicular(ius)], not [strator] (Fitz 1969, 140). In the imperial provinces governed by legátus Augusti pro praetore, we know of cornicularii, benficiarii and exacti holding the office of procurator (DOMASZEWSKI and DOBSON 1967, 66-67). The strator is attested in the service not only of the governor but also of the legátus legionis {ibid., 39, no. 23) and may thus be considered a sign of the rank general. the ruling emperor (FITZ 1983). Especially in the beginning, the title was supposed to denote not military succès but loyalty to the emperor. It would be inexplicable if Septimius Severus were the only emperor to renounce this prerogative in favor of one of his sons. From the middle of the third century on, the honorific titles also include the names of the co-regents (Galliano- Volusiana, Valeriana-Galliena, Valeriana-Galliena- Valeriana) , but never in divided form (separately with the name of Trebonianus Gallus : Galliana and separately with that of Volusianus : Volusiand) (Fitz 1986, 139-142). The nature of the honorific title conferred by the ruler (and abolished at his death) was so definite and unambiguous, that its regular use cannot be questioned on the basis of an uncertainly dated inscription. How, then, should we interpret the title Antoniniana of legio VI Ferrata, if Valerianus held his office in Palaestina about 200-205? The question is answered by the inscription itself. According to Speidel, Mevius Romanus was a centurio strator, on the analogy of C. Furio Timesitheo proc. Aug. Aur. lustinus > strator eius (this unpublished inscription is cited by Speidel 1985, 325, no. 26.). The analogy, however, is mistaken. The inscription of Caesarea reads not Meuius Romanus, > strator leg. VI Ferr.f. с Antoninianae, but Meuius Romanus, > leg. VI Ferr.f. с Antoninianae, strator eius. The two are not the same. Mevius Romanus had been a strator^ in the service of the procurator, i.e., a pricipalis ranking amoung the immunes (DOMASZEWSKI and DOBSON 1967, 35, no. 8.), when Valerianus held office in Palaestina. He then advanced in the hierarchy of junior officers, finally becoming a centurio. We know of other stratores who honored their legates or procurators with inscriptions several years after serving them. Ti. Claudius Candidus, another prominent general of the civil war, was governor of Hispánia Citerior at the summit of his career {PIR 2 , С 823; ALFÖLDY 1969, 43-45). At that time (A.D. 197-199) he was honored with an inscription by Silius Hospes, who called himself hastatus leg. X Gem., strator eius {CIL, II, 4114 = ILS, 1140, Tarraco). Silius Hospes had actually been a strator ca. 193 or somewhat later, appointed to the dux exercitus Illyrici, and finally reaches the top rank of the centuriones (primi or dines) ca. 200 (Fitz 1966, 840; Fitz 1978, 373). Even more to the point is the inscription raised in honor of C. Iulius Geminius Marcianus {PIR 2 , I 340) : [DJurmius Felix, primi [pi[liar is leg. Ill Cyrenaicae, [stjrator in Arabia, maioris [tejmporis eius [h]on. causa {CIL, VIII, 7050 - ILS, 1102 - ILAlg, II. 634, Cirta). Marcianus was governing Arabia until ca. 165 (ALFÖLDY 1977, 243), when Durmius Felix was his strator {> strator: Birley 1968, n. 23 ; DOBSON 1978, 262-263, no. 145.) The inscription of Cirta also mentions his proconsulate in Macedonia, an office he most probably held ca. 170 (Pflaum 1969, 228; ALFÖLDY 1977, 265). The time-lag between the strator's service and his raising of the inscription is here quite evident. Thus, if Mevius Romanus raised the inscription in honor of his former procurator, not in the period 200-205, but some years later, we do not have to date the title Antoniniana of legio VI Ferrata to the reign of Septimius Severus. The honorific title instead shows plaintly that the inscription could not have been put up before 212. 161
