Fitz Jenő (szerk.): Religions and Cults in Pannonia. Exhibiton an Székesfehérvár, Csók István Gallery 15 May - 30 September 1996 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: A. sorozat 33. (1998)

merchant С. Trotedius. Patsch supposed that Neptun had most probably been named after a locality (cf. CIL XV 4585: (Vinum) ex/(undo) Oviano n(ostro), or n(ovo)); Ovianus is clearly an epichoric epithet of Neptun (PATSCH 1905, 139-141). The name Medus must have been a name typical of the region, which is confirmed by the fact that this was also the name of the father of a soldier from Municipium Magnum, by origin from the region settled by the Varciani, between Neviodunum and Andautonia (cf. DOBÓ 1975, 190: Vercaius Medif(ilius) domo Varcianus, from the ala nova Claudia), while Medu is a feminine Celtic name attested once in Noricum (LOCHNER von HÜTTENBACH 1989, s.v.). Medulius appears three times as a cognomen in Pannónia, andMedullius once as a gentilicium (MÓCSY et al. 1983, s.v.). Although Negotiator could have been used as a cognomen2, it in this case might well have meant the profession of a merchant, especially in view of the dedication having been set up to Neptune. The probable Pannonian origin of the slave, as indicated by his name, confirms the autochthonous origin of the local river deity. The worship of the god Savus does not seem to have been wholly supplanted by the worship of Neptune, although Neptune was venerated at Klembas near Hrastnik in the territory of Celeia (CIL III 5137), directly across from the site of the sanctuary of Savus and Adsalluta. Inscriptions dedicated only to Savus are found at three different sites along the river Savus. Altars are known from Vernek opposite Kresnice, the territory of Emona (CIL III 3896 + p. 1736 and 2328, 26: Savo Aug(usto) \ sac(rum) \ P. Rufrius \ Verus \ v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito), from Andautonia (present-day Scitarjevo, AIJ 415: Savo Aug(usto) \ sac(rum) \ M. Iuentius \ Primigeniu[s] \ [e]t soci(i) v(otum) s(olverunt) l(ibentes) m(erito), as well as from Siscia (Sisak), where he was invoked in a curse tablet found in the Kupa River (ancient Colapis, AIJ551; VETTER 1960, 127-132). The text was written in a rather vulgar Latin; the inner side bears the names of the opponents in some legal suit and the imprecation which should prevent them from saying anything against the authors of the tablet: "You will give a command to Savus to see to it that he pulls them downwards, that they become speechless, that they cannot say or do anything against us...". The curse tablet is an indication that Savus must have been a powerful god whose sphere of influence in the conceptual world of the inhabitants along the river was more extensive than could be concluded merely from the texts on the altars dedicated to him. His importance is finally illustrated by the fact that he was represented together with Colapis (the god of the river Kolpa/Kupa: the Kupa joins the Sava in Siscia) as late as the reign of Gallienus. Images of river gods appear on Gallienus' gold coins and silver medallions (ALFÖLDI 1927/28, 47 nos. 14 and 2), and on the antoniniani of Probus (WEBB 1972,(2), Probus, nos. 764-766). At the hamlet of Sava near Podkraj, opposite Klembas not far from Hrastnik (the region of Trbovlje), close to the right bank of the Savus river, in an area of dangerous rapids extending further to Radece (Radece is not distant from the confluence of the Sava and Savinja rivers at Zidani most), a cult site was indicated by the discovery often altars, nine of which were dedicated to Adsalluta or to Savus and Adsalluta, and one was uninscribed. The site, which was located in the border region between Noricum and Pannónia, has been excavated since 1993 by the Celje Regional Office for the Protection of the Natural and Cultural Heritage. The majority of altars dedicated to Savus and Adsalluta come from this site (CIL III 5134=11680, 5135, 5136 + p. 1828 and 2328,26 in the National Museum of Slovenia, CIL П1 5138 in the Joanneum in Graz, 11684 in Celje, 11685 once in the Burger house at Hrastnik, now in the Museum Collections of Hrastnik; see additionally for others: AIJ26, 27, 255, and MÜLLNER 1879, no. 238). The altars come from a former sanctuary, where prehistoric pottery fragments and a Roman coin and bricks were also found; the sanctuary had supposedly been excavated in 1917 by W. Schmid (1923/24, 183-184), but it was actually discovered through the excavations in 1994. Adsalluta is a local Celtic, probably Tauriscan deity, connected with water and river transport along the dangerous rapids between Hrastnik and Zidani most. She may also have been a divinity of some hypothetical thermal or nonthermal, actually existing, springs in the near vicinity, and of a sacred grove within the area of her sanctuary. A narrow towpath led through it to help tow-boats upstream through the rapids.3

Adsalluta, or Savus and Adsalluta together, were worshipped by several gentes, such as the Caecinae (ultimately originating from the Etruscan world, Volaterrae), Antonii, Cassii, Castricii, Servilii, who must have been well-to-do merchant families, most of them well attested in Aquileia (cf. Inscr. Aquil, indexes). The dedication to Adsalluta erected by L. Servilius Eutyches, cum suis gubernatoribus (AIJ 26) is interesting, both because the dedicant may have been related to the above mentioned L. Servilius Sabinus, who had a sanctuary to Neptune built at his own expense at Bistra near Nauportus, and because this is one of the rare instances that gubernatores, the pilots, are mentioned outside military context. The goddess Adsalluta - occasionally in the company of Savus - mainly watched over the safe passage of the frequent travellers, for in prehistory, the Roman period, and up to the building of the southern railway, such water routes were utilized for the transport of the most varied cargoes to a much greater extent than today. At the late Roman fortified settlement of Ajdovski gradée above Vranje near Sevnica, with two early Christian churches, a large cistern and several excavated houses (PETRU-ULBERT 1975; CIGLENECKI 1987, 65-67.), several Roman 2 KAJANTO 1965, 321, who, however, only cited two cases and not the Neviodunum one. 3 See the commentary in SASEL KOS 1994, 99-122. 19