Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 73-74. (Budapest, 1975)

ELŐADÁSOK — KISEBB KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Davies, R. W.: Medicus Duplicarius (angol és magyar nyelven)

"Das auf dem Grabstein erwähnte Kürzel 'Aegyp' weist auf Ägypten hin. Hatte sich die Einheit in Ägypten ausgezeichnet und deshalb die ehrenvolle Zusatzbezeichnung 'Ägyptische' erhalten oder hiess das Schiff des Arrius 'Ägypten' oder aber bestand die Besatzung des Schiffes hauptsächlich aus Ägyptern; und waren die Schiffe vielleicht auch in Ägypten gebaut? Diese Fragen beinhalten nicht nur epigraphische Deutungsprobleme." It is most unlikely that the crew of this ship came from Egypt. In his study on the Roman Navy Professor Starr has drawn up a list (Table 1), based on epigraphic evidence, of "The Origins of the Sailors"; of 86 sailors of the Ravenna Fleet whose origin is known, only 5 come from Egypt, with a further 3, but of different civic status, from Alexandria

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. An Egyptian administrative lawcode specifically forbids native Egyptians from enlisting in the Ravenna Fleet

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. Statistically it is most probable that Romanus came from the Balkans. It is also unlikely that the ship was built in Egypt; Roman warships were not designed for making long seavoyages across the Mediterranean

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; moreover, the Italian fleets had dockyards, where naval craftsmen would make and repair the vessels

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. There can be little doubt that aegyp must be the name of Romanus's ship. The names of over 85 ships of the Roman fleets are known

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; they are mostly named after deities, rivers, abstract virtues, heroes, and animals, a practice continued by modern navies. Of the medici duplicarii of the Misene Fleet, who give the name of their vessel (trireme), L. Lollius Valens served in the Fides ("Faith"), C. Octavius Fronto in the Tigris ("River Tigris"), and M. Satrius Longinus in the Cupido ("Cupid")

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. The name of the navis of Romanus is Aegyptus ("Egypt"). The use of a country for the name of a ship is rare, but there is a parallel in the "Armenia".

13 There is thus no connection between the medicus and Egypt. On the meaning of duplicarius Dr. Watermann writes

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: "Der Titel lässt sich auch so deuten : Der Medicus duplicarius war Hafen- und Flottenarzt zugleich." There is no problem over what duplicarius must mean. The very distinguished Roman scholar and philologist M. Terentius Varro defines the word (De Lingua Latina V 90): duplicarii, died quibus ob virtutem duplicaria cibaria ut darentur institutum ; "duplicarii

—men so called to whom by order double (duplicaria) rations were given on account of their valour". Literature attests examples of this.

15 These men were sometimes called duplares, as the later author Vegetius, 7 Starr, C. G.: The Roman Imperial Navy 31 B.C.

—A.D. 324, second edition, Cambridge 1960, 75—77. 8 Seckel, E. and Schubart, W.: Der Gnomon des Idios Logos, Berlin 1919—1934 = BGU volume V, number 1210, lines 142—145. 9 Starr, op. cit., 51—52. 10 Starr, op. cit., 51—52, 56, 84. 11 Miltner, F.: 'Seewesen (Namen)', Realencyclopaedie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, Supplementband V, Stuttgart 1931, 946—962. 12 Davies (1969), op. cit., 98, numbers 63—65. ly Miltner, op. cit. 14 Watermann, op. cit., 99. 15 De Ruggiero, E.: Dizionario epigraphico de antichità romane 1961, 2076—2077.