x. PROVINCIAL RULER CULT IN THE DANUBE PROVINCES

Traces of ruler cult at the provincial level are meagre in the Danube region compared with what has survived elsewhere in the West. Given the nature of the available evidence, a number of important issues must be left unresolved, yet despite the uncertainties it seems clear that the credit for in• stalling an official cult in most provinces of the area must be given to . What is perhaps more significant, the form of the ruler cult he introduced broke new ground in focusing wholly on the living emperor to the exclusion of Roma. This was, of course, a significant departure from the policy laid down by and on the face of it conflicts with Trajan's well-known reserve in the matter of divine honours (Pliny, Paneg. 2, 3; 52, 2) and conscious striv• ing after Augustan usage. I Yet the "Republicanism" of Trajan looks to have been something less than the literary sources tend to convey.2 If the emperor could be addressed as "optimus" 3 and had no qualms about deifying not only his predecessor, , but also in some sense his natural father (thus giving himself the distinction of two deified fathers) 4 and his own sister,S he may well have felt free to break with Augustan precedent in remote provinces along the north-east frontier.

Dacia had itself been overrun by Trajan 6 and, though epigraphical evidence seems not to begin before the time of , there is no reason to

I Cerfaux-Tondriau 358.

2 M. Hammond, The Antonine Monarchy (Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome 19), Rome, 1959,210 f.; K. H. Waters, "The Reign of Trajan, and its Place in Contem• porary Scholarship (1960-72)," ANRW 2,2 (1975) 381-431 at 399. 3 For Trajan as "Jovian" emperor see Beaujeu, Rel.Rom. 71-80; for his emphasis on the cult of Heracles see ibid., 80-87; cf. Taeger, Charisma 359-368. The new Jovian and Herculian theology of the under Trajan is summarized by G. W. Bowersock, "Greek Intellec• tuals and the Imperial Cult" in den Boer (ed.), Le Culte 179-206 at 192-195. , For Traianus pater as a second-class divus (cf. Pliny, Paneg. 89, 2) see the cogent discussion by 1. H. Oliver, "The Divi of the Hadranic period," HThR 42 (1949), 35-40. See further 1. Babelon, "Note sur un buste du pere de Traian conserve au Cabinet des MedailIes," REA 64 (1962), 49-53; M.-L. Paladini, "Divinizzazione di Trajano padre" in Hommage a A. Grenier (Collection Latomus 58), Brussels, 1962, 1194-1206; M. Durry, "Sur Trajan pere" in Les Empereurs romains d'Espagne (Actes du Colloque International du Centre National de la Recher• che Scientifique, Madrid-Italica, 31 mars-6 avril 1964), Paris, 1965,45-51 with discussion 51-54; G. G. Belloni, "Significati storico-politici delle figurazioni e delle scritte delle monete da Augusto a Traiano," ANRW 2, 1 (1974) 997-1144 at 1115 f. , In A.D. 112 Marciana became diva cognominata: Fasti Ostienses = Inscrlt 13 (1) 5, 22, 11. 39-48. For discussion see Oliver, (above, note 4) o.c.; Beaujeu, Rel.Rom. 415 f.; E. 1. Bicker• man, "Diva Augusta Marciana," A JPhii 95 (1974), 362-376; I.-C. Richard, "Recherches sur cer• tains aspects du culte imperial: Les funerailles des empereurs Romains aux deux premiers siecies de notre ere," in ANRW 2, 16,2 (1978) 1121-1134 at 1128. 6 For a review of recent discussion see Waters (above, note 2) 417-420. 302 BOOK I doubt that, as a newly won territory, it would have been given an official wor• ship before the tripartite division of the province under .' A number of features are of interest. At Sarmizegetusa, the seat of the provincial coun• cil, I the worship centred on an ara Aug(usti) and the technical term for the high priest was sacerdos, several inscriptions attesting sacerdotalis, the title of a past holder of the office. 9 Roma was evidently not included; but if the living emperor was to be paid cult in isolation, sacerdos would in any event be a more appropriate title than flamen even if choice of the term sacerdos was originally dictated by the presence in the cult of Roma alongside the emperor. IO Whether the foundation of a provincial cult in Lower Moesia II should also be attributed to Trajan rather than , under whom Moesia was partitioned, must remain undecided. As no contribution of Domi• tian to provincial ruler worship is known, Trajan is the likeliest candidate at present, particularly if the provincial centre was not at Troesmis but at

Oescus, which Trajan made a colony. 12 The two inscriptions that have sur• vived happen to come from Troesmis, I J but the term sacerdos/sacerdotalis could well suggest a cult similar to that Trajan introduced elsewhere in the Danube provinces. Attention might also be drawn to Dalmatia where the regional ara Aug(usti) Liburnorum at Scardona 14 looks decidedly Trajanic in character, as does a fragmentary inscription from Zenica possibly reading sacerd(oti/otali) [proVl]nc(iae) De[l]ma[tiae]." Evidence from Pannonia considerably strengthens this tentative outline. Whether a provincial cult existed earlier is not known, but separate cults of Pannonia Superior and Pannonia Inferior can date only from after the divi-

7 Deininger, Provinziallandtage 32 f.; Kornemann, "Herrscherkulte" 115. I Deininger, o.c. 118, n. 6. C. Daicoviciu, "Severe Alexandre et la Dacie," Acta Musei Napocensis 3 (1966), 153-163, dates the formation of the concilium Trium Daciarum to the reign of (A.D. 222-235), at which time Sarmizegetusa was given the title of metropolis. For a possible connection with the council see L. Marghitan and C. C. Petolescu, .. Vola pro salute principis," StudClas 16 (1974), 245-247. , For documentation see Deininger o.c. 118 f.; add P. Aelius Maximus, whose title is restored as [sacerdos ar)ae Aug(usli) n(ostri) I [coronatus Dac(iarum)1]1/ by C. Daicoviciu, "Un nou sacerdos Arae Augusti in Dacia," Acta Musei Napocensis 4 (1967), 469 f. (= AEpig, 1971, no. 395); C. Ulpius Bonus (AEpig, 1977, no. 656) . For P. Aelius Antipater (?pater) see now AEpig (1977) no. 689.

I. See "Roma et Augustus" above, Vol. I, I, p. 132.

II The only evidence from Upper Moesia is an inscription attesting the existence of the provin• cial assembly: CIL 3, 8257 (Remesiana). See further A. M6csy, Pannonia and Upper Moesia, London, 1974, 214. " Kornemann, "Herrscherkulte" 135 f. Jl Deininger 120, citing CIL 3, 773 (= 6170), 7506. I. Deininger 116, n. 8, citing ILlug 199 (= CIL 3, 2810); cf. 1. J. Wilkes, Dalmatia, London, 1969,200, n. 7. The cult was served by a sacerdos Liburnorum (1Llug 247). " CIL 3, 12762 + 12766. At the priest bore the most unusual title sacerdos at (sic) aram Caesaris: CIL 3, 13827 (= ILS 7158). For the suggestion that the regional cults at Scardona and Doclea may be of Flavian origin see "Vae Puto Deus Fio", above, p. 299, note 34.