Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 32/2. (2012)
Articles
148 I. BODA The second phase of habitation is marked by improvements inside the temple. In thepronaos a new arrangement with clay was noticed on top of which a layer of mortar with bricks fixed inside it was put. On the western side of the building, next to the central cella towards the north, a new building made from mortar and stone river was added (usually the added room is not a cella but an annex). It ends in front of wall ‘B’. The same situation is not noticed in the south. New modifications, especially the adding of a new cella suggest the presence of a new god in the pantheon of the present sanctuary, next to the main one, believed to be Apollo. The researchers concluded that this new cella was built for Iuppiter Dolichenus. Among the archaeological remains there was a statue of a vulture, a small fragment from the left hip of a bull with a long tail, made from marble, and a relief with a votive scene with an eagle having a laurel crown in its beak, its claws on the back of a deer (Boda-Szabó 2011, 275-285, fig. 1/a-b). The time when the building was used must have lasted until the abandonment of the province in 271 AD or maybe even later. It cannot be stated whether this stage ended with a fire or not because of damage from the agricultural works. The presence of these two divinities that were worshipped in the same sanctuary, but in different stages, was explained by the both solar and military character of Apollo and Iuppiter Dolichenus. Apollo would represent the divinity mostly worshipped in the Illyrian area of the Dalmatians from the auxiliary troop from Mehadia whether Dolichenus would be the accepted god, following either a participation of the troop in an eastern campaign or a subtle political impulse from the Severian Imperial House (Benea 2008, 105-111). It is hard to believe that the initially Graeco-Roman temple could have changed its destination into an oriental one. More likely we believe that, in the two stages of existence of the temple, it was from the very beginning built for the eastern deity but, at some point, it was rebuilt after a fire. Regarding the reinterpretation of the temple of Bel from Porolissum - where researchers argued that in the second phase the building was dedicated to Liber Pater and in the third, during the visit of emperor Caracalla, was rebuilt for the deity Bel from Palmyra - Benea (1980, 185-190) considered hard to accept the changing of the religious designation of a temple by replacing a roman cult with an oriental one. In our opinion the same theory must be applied for the sanctuary from Mehadia! Taking thus into consideration the two systematically researched dolichenian temple one can observe that the presence of Apollo is not an unusual phenomenon. In the case of the dolichenum from Mehadia the religious destination of the temple was not changed, rather in both phases of the edifice, from the beginning, the temple was dedicated to the oriental divinity, while Apollo was included in this pantheon. Apollo, Castores and other gods from the dolichenian circle A first analogy for the presence of the Graeco-Roman god in a dolichenian context is offered by the dolichenum from Rome (Aventin). This sanctuary appears to have been built during the time of Marcus Aurelius, being one of the first dolichenian sanctuaries. Two examples that prove a hierarchy between the believers and the priests are the dolichenian community from Carnuntum in Pannonia Superior respectively from Aventin in Rome. The spread of this cult is due mostly because of the priests leading this community, led by a pater candidatorum and Dolichenus had an amazing expansion thanks to their activities, their structure and their ability in the politics of that time.
