Proconsul of Cyprus. by SIR W
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324 indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures ; it is other thing as well. Let them be symbols of the the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man ; lavish assiduity with which we townsfolk, through without which buildings and palaces are but gross the coming year, will polish each his link in the handiworks ’-since all this still remains admirably long gold and silver chain .of gardens, which true, let the silver and gold scattered so lavishly unites us, here in the smoke-drift, with the clean ’ about our gardens at the moment symbolize one world of Nature lying outside the walls. The Family and Religion of L. Sergius Paullus, Proconsul of Cyprus. By SIR W. M. RAMSAY, D.C.L., LL.D., LITT.D., D.D., EDINBURGH. THE province Galatia has been fruitful in dis- course a certain amount of hypothesis needed in coveries bearing on the history of the family of the reconstruction of family history. The strength Sergius Paullus, who came into friendly relations of hypothesis like this depends on familiarity with with Paul and Barnabas at Paphos about A.D. 47 the conditions and facts of society in the Imperial (Ac 13 10-12), and who was perhaps converted to time, and can be properly estimated only by refer- the Christian faith. The words of Acts certainly ence to the whole circumstances and history of suggest this, but they do not constitute a complete Roman society and administration. So far as the proof that conversion in the fullest sense took part of the reconstruction already published in my place. This is pointed out in my book on the book is concerned, I had the advantage of con- Bearind of Recent Research on the Trustworthiness firmation from Professor Dessau, to whose special of the New Testament, p. 164, where the twelfth department in Roman work this class of investi- chapter discusses the religion and subsequent gation belongs; but the conditions which have history of his family. It is there argued from prevailed in Europe since August 1914 have one inscription found in Pisidian Antioch that interrupted co-operation .and friendly association the son of this Sergius Paullus was governor of between scholars of the opposing belligerent the province Galatia about A.D. 70-74, and from countries. The most hypothetical part of the another that his sister Sergia Paulla was married whole hypothesis is the presumed continuity of to the noblest citizen of Antioch, doubtless during the Sergian patrician family, and this continuity the time that her brother was governing the was accepted as self-evident and certain 1 by the province. It is a somewhat unusual fact in author of the Prosopogyaphia of the Roman Roman social history that a lady belonging to Empire. a patrician senatorial family should marry a citizen Some vague idea of the remarkable nature of of a remote provincial city, even though that city this inscription (which Professor Calder had found was a Roman colony and had played an extremely some years previously, and which we recopied in important part in Roman history during the first company in 1913) occurred to us at the moment; century of Imperial history. In this way the but, in the actual work of travelling over the generation of the Sergii immediately following plateau, visiting often several sites in a single the proconsul of Cyprus came into close relations day, there was no further time to think over the with the province of Galatia generally and the bearing of the document, and I forgot about it military capital Pisidian Antioch in particular. until i 9 i 6 when I chanced to be revising the A discovery which was made by Professor whole series of inscriptions in Professor Calder’s Calder of Manchester and myself renders it 1 Lightfoot also regarded the later Sergii Paulli as lineal possible to pursue the further, and to trace subject descendants of the proconsul of Cyprus. The fact is too the of the for a and history family nearly century simple to be susceptible of. proof, but scholars in historical - a half after the incident in Paphos. There is of research recognize it forthwith. Downloaded from ext.sagepub.com at OAKLAND UNIV on June 3, 2015 325 notebook (my own notebook having unfortunately husband, because she is said to make the tomb, been lost).’ It is very fortunate that the testimony and the act originates from her as the landlord of my friend to the discovery can be invoked to and owner of the estate, although she was not corroborate my own eyes, because the nature of present and probably knew nothing about this the inscription is so remarkable, and historically Summoner or his death. Gnzeus Cornelius was so suggestive and wide-reaching, that I might a freedman of her husband, and belonged therefore perhaps have hesitated before venturing to publish to his household ; yet the Viator is acting on her it, if I had been the only authority for it, lest behalf as her representative on her property ; and I should be exposed to the charge of finding this incidentally is a proof that the family life and always what suited my own purposes and corrobor- interests of Sergia and Cornelius continued united ated my own prepossessions. Had it not been for (which was not always the case in Roman patrician the closer study of the Sergian history required in families).5 the attempt to illuminate the episode in the Acts, Both husband and wife belong to well-known the importance of the monument here published families in Roman history during the first and would have probably escaped notice, because in second century. Sergia Paullina is especially itself it belongs to a common class of memorial. well known, because inscriptions mentioning in- In one of the most lonely and deserted parts of cidents pr persons on her estates are rather northern Lycaonia, in a region which we have numerous, and it would appear from the evidence taken to consist entirely of one vast Imperial already known, when compared with the present estate or group of’ estates (tracties), stands the inscription, that she was the heiress in whose following inscription : hands was concentrated the property of the MEMORIAE TO THE MEMORY OF CN. CORNELI L[IB] ... ANI GNAEUS CORNELIUS, FREEDMAN [COGNOMEN LOST] DECURIAL[ IS] VIATORIS VIATOR OF THE DECURIAE ’SERGIA L. [F.] PAULLINA SERGIA PAULLINA [DAUGHTER] OF LUCIUS CORNELI SEVERI (WIFE) OF CORNELIUS SEVERUS. This epitaph rouses astonishment. How shall we Roman patrician family which bore the name explain the appearance of Sergia Paullina and Sergius Paullus. Borghesi, a very high authority, Cornelius Severus, bearing two of the noblest considered that she was the daughter of Lucius Roman patrician names, in a solitary part of Sergius Paullus, who was consul m. in A.D. i 68 ; Lycaonia like this? Neither Paullina nor her but Dessau, the more recent authority, suggests husband can possibly be supposed to have as more probable that she was the sister or the travelled in this region, or to have been present aunt of that consul; and the lettering in the at the performance of such an act as the making of Lycaonian inscription decides in favour of Dessau’s the tomb of one of their freedmen who was a hiator33 last suggestion. She belongs to a generation in their service (the term Tliator might be roughly earlier than the consul of 168, and she is the translated Summoner: perhaps the slaves on the same person whose estates are mentioned in the estate were classified in dec~irz~e).4~ inscription on a tile dated ’A.D. 134. The only possible explanation is that the lady The fact that Sergia Paullina was the heiress of I was the owner of an estate here. The estate the Sergian properties implies that the stock in the belonged to her personally, and not to her direct line nearly died out, and there was no male - heir in her This furnishes the ex- 1 The inscription should have been published (with the generation. of the fact that there is a in inferences here stated) in my book, had it not been for this planation striking gap forgetfulness. the annals of the Sergian family, so that the consul 2 Both Paullina and Paulla were used as the feminine of 168 shows the reappearance of the name after counterparts of Paullus. 6 3A viator occurs also at Laodiceia of Lycaonia, close to It is possible that Paullina gave her husband’s name the great Imperial estates of Zizima. to her own freedman. Examples occur, where two friends 4 The republican viatores dec. cannot be taken as furnishing are concerned : so Dionysius united the names of Cicero and any evidence about viator on a Lycaonian estate. Atticus, but was freedman only of Atticus. Downloaded from ext.sagepub.com at OAKLAND UNIV on June 3, 2015 326 a long interval, during which it makes no show in pendently of any epigraphic mention of L. Sergius Roman administrative history. Before the time Paullus the son) to suggest the hypothesis that when Dessau was publishing his monumental there must have been a governor of the province Prosopographia, this gap seemed to extend un- bearing the name Sergius Paullus at some time broken between the proconsul of Cyprus about not later than the second century. Sergia Paulla, A.D. 47 and the consul of 168; Dessau moved probably the sister of the governor of Galatia, Sergia Paullina into the intermediate period, married a Roman knight belonging to the most suggesting that she might belong to the generation prominent family of Antioch, named Caristanius, earlier than the consul; but still the gap remained and her husband was elevated to senatorial rank very long, and the relationship between the later in 74,2 and thereafter filled a number of high Sergii and the old Sergius, who is mentioned in oflices in the Roman Imperial service, governing the Acts of the Apostles, was therefore by no Lycia and Pamphylia, and afterwards being pro- means certain.’ In itself, however, the relation- consul of Asia (which implies that in the interval ship was highly probable, and had been accepted, he had been honoured with the consulship).