976. Dedication to Marcus Aurelius

Description:
Rectangular marble base (w: 0.26 x h: 0.36 x d: 0.26)  
Text:
Inscribed on one face within a moulded panel (w: 0.19 x h: 0.28): there is a circular depression on the top. 
Letters:
Second century capitals with some Rustic forms, ll. 1-5, 0.034; l. 6, 0.018. 
Date:
139-161 A.D. (reign). 
Findspot:
Lepcis Magna: shore: west of the Temple of Neptune. Found in 1953 by Mr. Duncan Black. 
Original Location:
Unknown 
Last recorded location:
Lepcis Museum. 
Bibliography:
Not previously published. This edition taken from J. M. Reynolds, 'Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania: A Supplement', Proceedings of the British School at Rome 23 (1955), 124-147, no. S.4. 
Text constituted from:
Transcription (Reynolds) 
Aurelio
Caesari
Antonini
Aug(usti) Pii f(ilio)
5Vitalis lib(- - -)-
uerna a(- - -) X mo(- - -)
AVRELIO
CAESARI
ANTONINI
AVGPIIF
5VITALISLIB(- - -)
VERNAA(- - -)XMO(- - -)
<ab>
<lb n="1" />
Aurelio
<lb n="2" />
Caesari
<lb n="3" />
Antonini
<lb n="4" />
<expan>
<abbr>
Aug
</abbr>
<ex>
usti
</ex>
</expan>
Pii
<expan>
<abbr>
f
</abbr>
<ex>
ilio
</ex>
</expan>
<lb n="5" />
Vitalis
<abbr>
lib
</abbr>
<lb n="6" type="worddiv" />
uerna
<abbr>
a
</abbr>
<num value="10" >
X
</num>
<abbr>
mo
</abbr>
</ab>

Translation:

To Aurelius Caesar, son of Antoninus Augustus Pius, (set up by) Vitalis, freed home-born slave, ?in charge of claims for ships with capacity for ten thousand measures (of corn).

Commentary:

ll. 1-2. Marcus Aurelius, Caesar from 139 to 161.

l.5. Lib(ertus) or lib(rarius): Liberti are sometimes described also as uernae, see e.g. L'Ann. Ep. 1941, 161 uernae et liberto incomparibili: but in view of the order of words here and of the context a term descriptive of the man's function might be preferable. For slave librarii see CIL VIII, 12165-9.

l.6. Written A. X. M. with a small O above the M. There are identical sigla in CIL XIV, 4319 at Ostia (a dedication to the numen domus Augusti by Victor et Hedistus uern(ae) disp(ensatores) cum Traiano Aug(usti) lib(erto) A. X. M. O. (with O above the M), except that in the Ostian text there is a bar above the X. The lettering of the Ostian text and the name Traianus suggest that it was cut in the middle to late second century, and is in fact roughly contemporary with the Lepcitanian one. (I am indebted to Prof. G. Barbieri for a photograph of the Ostian text).

The explanation of the Ostian text given in CIL loc. cit. - a(nno) (decimo) m(agistro) (sc. of a collegium in whose scola it is supposed to have been dedicated) - cannot stand now that another instance of the abbreviation has been found: nor does an earlier suggestion made by Dessau in Eph. Ep. IX, 437 - a(eris) (sc. stipendii) (decimi) mo(?) seem to help. It would be reasonable to suppose that the letters refer to a branch of the imperial financial service and perhaps specifically one concerned with financial administration arising in ports. For this the precise findspots of the two texts offer some confirmation - the Ostian text was found in the Piazzale delle Corporazioni, and the Lepcitanian text on the seashore near 302, which mentions a seruus in the office of the IIII p.A. at Lepcis and suggests the proximity of that office. But I am unable to offer any satisfactory expansion of the letters. M with O above is a standard abbreviation for modius.

Photographs:

Ward-Perkins Archive, BSR (BSR 53 III 40)
 Ward-Perkins Archive, BSR (BSR 53 III 40)

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