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)

The stairs next to the nymphaeum led upwards primarily to the most important building of the sacred area, i. e. the temple (Nr. LXX), renovated in 202 by Septimius Severus and Caracalla. The excavation of the temple is still in progress, so that it is in its bulk still unknown. The stairs on the western side led upwards to four pillars marking the facade. On the northern side six pillars of a colonnade belonging to the temple came to light which possibly was part of the renovation of 202. In the early layer of the temple the brick stamp of the legio XGemina came to light2, i.e. the building activity began also in this place about 106. The excavations found a considerable part of the building in a very dilapidated state. In the case of a part of the great halls only the place of the walls taken out could be stated. In 260 Gorsium fall victim to the destroying attac of Sarmatian Roxolani. The rebuilding activity during the Tetrarchic period created an entirely new town over the ruins, from the walls of the previous buildings the later generations used only a few, so the West-East ala of the hall on the third level (Nr. XXIV), which became the porticus of a public building. The sacred area was not renewed at all, on its place buildings with different purposes came into being (a larger pagan temple as early as the Tetrarchic period, a public bath, the public building with the porticus mentioned, dwelling-houses). The carvings decorating the buildings and halls of the sacred area had a similar destiny. No stone statue, relief, architectural fragment of importance was found, all became victims of later building activities. For this secondary use we have undoubtful proofs from the times of the Tetrarchy. The walls and towers encircling the new town, founded in this time, remained in a long section on the eastern side, with numerous stone carvings built in the foundation, but the walls of the earliest buildings, those of the palace, the tabernae, the early basilica, yielded in the course of the excavations many stone carvings. The town walls were removed on the northern, eastern and southern side. In the early 11th century at Székesfehérvár, when the royal basilica, the provostal church and the town wall were first erected, the town walls on the northern, eastern and southern side were removed to their foundation and carried away, evidently together with the built-in carvings from the 1st to the 3rd centuries (FITZ 1993, 168-171). Research had many theories for the explanation of Roman stone monuments, coming to light from the town wall and different buildings (ALFÖLDI 1940, 195-200; E. TÓTH 1989, 1992) their provenience from Gorsium, proven also by pieces belonging together, is undiscussible. The coherences of reliefs, with mythological scenes and animal figures, found in Székesfehérvár, Gorsium and Intercisa, pointed to a further removal of stones: after the catastrophe of the year 260 stone material of a great quantity was transported from the Gorsium ruins to the camp along the Danube (FITZ 1991). This stone material is exceptionally important for the Gorsium area sacra: the removing utilized in first place the stones, reliefs and male statues clad in toga originally situated in the town centre. This stone material is not related to the Syrian troup stationed in Intercisa, the religious material to be connected with this formation belongs to the home cults of the Syrians. The carvings found in Gorsium, Székesfehérvár and Intercisa as for their theme and proportions, make three groups, whose dating can be defined as well (BARKÓCZI 1981, 170-193). Among the representations of the earliest group the pieces connected with the Trojan cycle are decisive, showing a near relation with the coin minting of Antoninus Pius, struck in 247 for the 900th anniversary of the foundation of Rome. In the series we find Aeneas fleeing from Troja, Athena and the fight between Greek and Troian warriors, Achilleus on the Isle of Skyros, the dragging of Hector, further other well-known scenes from the Greek mythology, as Bellerophon and the Chimaera, Pandora, Orpheus among the animals, Orpheus and Eurydice, Medea, the procession of Dionysos, Polyphemos, the myth of Tereus, Ariadne and the Satyr etc. In the other group the figure of Hercules and his exploits are in prominence: Hercules reclining, the victorious Hercules, his fight with the boar, Hercules and the Hesperida, Hercules and Alcestis, Hercules and Hesione. The series is to be dated to the early 3rd century, Hercules himself was an especially honoured deity of Lepcis Magna, the birth town of Septimius Severus. The reliefs can be brought in connection most likely with the ludi saeculares of the year 204. The third series represents animal scenes: horses, lions, leopards chasing a stag. The animal scenes, especially the figure of the stag, are identic with the representations shown on a series of coins of Philippus Arabs from 249, minted on the millennium of Rome's foundation. The reliefs connected with these three anniversaries, are unseparable from the range of ideas of the provibcial assembly and the imperial cult. As for the original site of the reliefs we can only make some conjectures: the West-East directed expanding of the colonnade on level 3 (Nr. XXIV) can be dated to the decades after the Marcomannic Wars, its inauguration could be probably dated to 202, the Gorsium visit of Septimius Severus. This can point to the hypothesis that the Hercules series might have belonged to this hall. In this case it is likely that the series made for the festivities held during the reign of Antoninus Pius might have decorated the early ala of the hall (Nr. XXIV). As for the third group, in the present stage of the excavation we have no starting point as yet. Some further temples are presumable to be connected with the sacred area of the emperors' cult, whose place is, though, not to be identified. To these belongs the temple of Marcus Aurelius (Nr. XVIII?) mentioned on an altar from 210, erected by its two priests {CIL III 3345). The personality of the priests - one of them a soldier of the cohors III Batavorum, - does not point to an official cult. The sacred area was connected with a cult of Iuppiter Optimus Maximus 2 Excavation 1995. 26