Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 31/1. (2011)
Articles
168 M.-C. Nicolae the monuments. Thus, it must be kept in mind that an analysis of the evolution of the reliefs’ form might offer surprising results, all combined with the area of distribution and, where possible, with the identification of manufacturing centres. Using these elements, S. Nemeti (2005, 209) proposed another typology (Table 3) which led to an origin territory comprised by the area of Moesia Inferior. In the area of Moesia Inferior appeared the simplest monuments as regarding the iconography, but as well the form in which this is conveyed. From this territory onwards, the reliefs will spread on the territory of province Dacia as well, brought by civil elements of the society.2 At this moment, the cult had not a definitive ideological form, and only the contact with the troops stationed on the territory of Dacia led to the advent of the elements connected to military milieu. Moreover, the monuments of this typological class appear especially in areas which have contact with the imperial road, reinforcing the above mentioned hypothesis. In the first place, the cult of the Danubian Riders is significant especially in civilian dominated areas, which might be explained by the model which followed, the cult of the Thracian Rider, more appealing to civilian than soldiers. Subsequently, under the influence of the military milieu, the cult will accomplish its definitive form, iconographical and as well ideological, addressing especially to military members. The hypothesis of Moesia Inferior as a place of origin is also sustained by the fact that the first monuments with the depiction of the Thracian Rider - considered as the model for the representations of a single Danubian Rider - appear as well here. As regarding the anteriority of the monuments with one Rider to monuments which depict two Riders, idea sustained by D. Tudor, it seems no longer plausible according to this typology, since we have reliefs with only one register, with a limited number of symbols, but on which appear two Riders. Given the situation, it is most probable that the two schemas rendered appeared simultaneously, but only one prevailed. The theme of the Rider represents a pattern in the art of Antiquity and even earlier, as we have already mentioned above. The significance of this motive, clearly connected to virtus et honestas, will determine its appearance in all sorts of media, and the art of the relief has made no exception. As we have seen, the Greco-Roman world is accustomed to several mounted divinities: The Dioscures, the Thracian Rider, the Danubian Riders, Horus killing Seth the crocodile, mounted Mithras or Gallic Iupiter. Some of them are equestrians by definition, while others achieved this frame of representation due to the military influence - mounted Horus in Egypt due to the presence of Macedonian soldiers, or mounted Mithras in Germania, where he was considered as a deity of a male society - (Nemeti 2005, 310). For the Balkan area, the theme of the mounted personage which achieved a divine status through the initiatic process of the symbolic hunting is a relatively common theme, which nevertheless knew a further development under the influence of the Hellenistic and Roman art. As surprisingly as might seem, the roots of this theme whose depictions came to us under the form of Thracian and Danubian Rider, might have local origins. Needless to say that the theme of the Rider and, as has been pointed above, of the double depiction of the Rider, is a common theme throughout the entire Antiquity and even earlier. The Balkan area makes no special case 2 The distribution of the military troops dislocated from Moesia Inferior in order to take part at the two Dacian wars led by Trajan, and the distribution of the artefacts belonging to the first typological class suggest the fact that, initially, these monuments were not present in military milieu, being brought in Dacia probably by colonists. Nevertheless, this situation is only a hypothesis, which will be confirmed, or not, after the mapping of the military troops present on the territory of Dacia from Hadrian onward. Even so, the place of origin is still represented by the territory of Moesia Inferior.
