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An Inscription of the Equites Singulares Imperatoris from Gerasa Author(s): G. L. Cheesman Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 4, Part 1 (1914), pp. 13-16 Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/295921 . Accessed: 08/05/2014 19:51

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This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 19:51:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AN INSCRIPTION OF THE EQUITES SINGULARES IMPERATORIS FROM GERASA.

By G. L. CHEESMAN. The following inscription has been kindly communicatedto me, at the suggestion of Mr. D. G. Hogarth, by Mr. Henry Reitlinger, to whom I am very much indebted for permissionto publish it in the Journal of RomanStudies. Mr. Reitlinger informs me that the inscription, which was en- graved upon one side of a block of grey limestone, apparently an altar, about two feet high by one foot six inches broad,was discovered by some Circassianpeasants among the ruins of Gerasa,in the Syrian Decapolis, two days before he himself arrivedon the site at the end of November, I9I3. The altar,which was still in its originalposition, stood about 67 yards north-east of the propylaea,which gives access from the main street to the great temple of the Sun. The stone, it may be hoped, is still in existence, since it was given into the charge of the Turkishcommandant, who promised to do his best to save it from being used as building material. The text supplied by Mr. Reitlinger reads, unspaced, as follows:

PROSALVTE IMP * CAES ? I * RAIAN HADRIANI * AVG * P * P DEANIAE * AVG EQVITES ? SING ? EIVS ? QVI 5 HIBERNATI * SVNT AE * AD * CHRYSORHOANQVAE ET GERASA HI IRA ET ASYLOETAV TONOMOE QVORVM CVRAAAGII M * CAI ? VENETVS VIAAOR > LEGVM IO CEDONICAE * TVRMAE V-- FLAVI 11II STATILI ROMA- VAL * BASSI ? CANI AVGVST- III PATERNI * VI I * FESTI VIPI VICTORIS VIPI AGRIPPINI- I5 V S * L M HONORIS ET PIETATIS CAVSA-

Illegible letters are indicated by vertical lines, which show roughly the number of letters to be supplied. The horizontal strokes at

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 19:51:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions I4 AN INSCRIPTION OF THE

the end of lines II, 12, 13, 15 and 17 indicate that the edge of the stone was broken, so that two or three letters may be missing in each case. The text, as a whole, presents few difficulties and may be restored as follows:

PRO SALVTE IMP(eratoris) CAEs(aris) [N(ostri)] TRAIAN(i) HADRIANI AVG(usti) P(atris) P(atriae) DEANIAEAVG(ustae) EQVITES SING(ulares) EIVS QVI 5 HIBERNATI SVNT ANTIOCH[i] AE AD CHRYSORHOAN QVAE ET GERASA H[IE]RA ET ASYLO(S) ET AV TONOMOZ QVORVM CVRAM AGIT M CAL(purnius) VENETVSVIATOR > LEG(ionis) V M[A] IO CEDONICAE . TVRMAE v[III] FLAVI [TITI ?] STATILI ROMA[NI] VAL(eri) BASSI CANI AVGVST[INI ?] [ . . . ] PATERNI VLPI FESTI VLPI VICTORIS VLPI AGRIPPINI I5 v(otum) s(olvit) L(ibens) M(erito) HONORIS ET PIETATIS CAVSA.

1. 2. I can make nothing of the illegible letter following CAESin Mr. Reitlinger's copy, except by supposing it to have been an N as suggestedabove-unless we read the TR of TRAIAN as two letters. 1. 6. The I of Antiochia may, of course, have escaped Mr. Reitlinger's notice or have been ligatured with the H. The title of Antiochia ad Chrysorhoanis given to Gerasain severalinscriptions of the imperial period. In a text dated A.D. I30, for example, we get the formula: '7 rro'd 'AvrLOXEcwvTrOv Trpbo TrOXpvo[op6]a rT)v TrpOTEpovrEpacpYvWt[v].1 The Chrysorhoas is presumably the stream on which the city stands, the modern Wadi Kerawan. The name of the centurion in line 10 presents little difficulty. The letters given by Mr. Reitlinger as CAImust conceal an abbreviated ' nomen,' probably the Calpurniusgiven in the text. The second ' cognomen I take to be Viator, disregardingthe appearanceof a reversedand ligatured E, which may be due to a crack in the stone. The M of Macedonica in the same line seems to have been read with difficulty, and may have contained a ligatured A, since this letter can hardly have been omitted. I restore v[III] at the end of line II, makingthe inscription run " the eight turmae of Flavius x," etc. It is, however, equally

1 I.G.R.R. iii, 1347: cf. I357.

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possible to read the last word of line i as V[LPI], and to take FLAVI as the beginning of some cognomen such as Flavianus. The general sense is the same in either case, since it is clear that the names in lines 12-15 are those of decurions commanding ' turmae,' and there are eight of them. In considering and restoring the names of these various decurions we may naturally turn for assistance to the inscriptions erected by the Equites Singulares at , particularly the numerous and complete lists of men discharged from this corps at the end of the reign of and the beginning of that of his successor.1 Thus we have every ground for identifying a Valerius Bassus men- tioned in connexion with the discharge-list for I39 as a ' centurio exercitator '2 with the third decurion on our list. The cognomen Bassus of common but the in is, course, enough, ' appearance inscriptions of the Equites Singulares of any nomen gentilicium' except that of an is rare, and among the 360 names given by the discharge-lists there is only one other Valerius.3 Add to this the probable closeness in date of the two inscriptions (for which see below), and the coincidence becomes too remarkable to be ignored. The eighth officer may be identified on a different ground, the rareness of the cognomen, with a decurion bearing the same name who is mentioned on an altar which probably also belongs to this period.4 The name of the sixth decurion, Ulpius , appears on another altar,5 but here we are on less sure ground, for both nomen and cognomen are common.6 The same is the case with Ulpius Victor, which appears on almost every discharge-list,7 while Paternus also occurs twice on the list for I34.8 To warrant the restorations made in lines I I and 12 we can point to the appearance 9 of as a cognomen in the list for I35, and of Romanus on the lists for I39, I42, I43,10 with the variant Romanius on a sepulchral inscription.11 The name Augustinus occurs on the list for I39,12 or we may accept as an alternative the Augustalis of the list for I43. 13 Such coincidences are worth pointing out, even when no identification is suggested, since the members of this corps usually only acquired the ' tria nomina ' on enrolment, and it is obvious from the inscrip- tions that certain popular names tend to be constantly repeated. It remains to discover, if possible, the circumstances which caused no less than eight troops of the of the Guard, who were normally stationed in the capital, to spend a winter at Gerasa.

1 The lists cover the years 132-I43 and I45, and 5 ibid. 31174. contain 360 names: C.I.L. vi, 3II40-31152. 6 ibid. 3287, 3298, 31145. 2ibid. 31147. 7ibid. 31141, 3II43, 31145- 8 3 Used as a nomen. Curiously enough it seems ibid. 31142. to have beeni popular as a cognomen: cf. C.I.L. vi, 9 ibid. 31143. 31I50, 31151. l?ibid. 3II47, 31150, 31151. 4 C.I.L. vi, 3II73. The name of the dedicant, 11 ibid. 3144. P. Aelius Celsus, shows that the inscriptioncannot 12 ibid. 31147. 1 be earlier than Hadrian. 3ibid. 31151.

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The fact that the corps was attached to the person of the emperor makes it fairly certain that this can only have occurred when Hadrian himself was in Syria, and we have, in fact, the choice between three occasions. (I) Hadrian seems to have remained in the east immediately after 's death, during the winter of II7-II8, when some hostilities were probably still in progress in connexion with the end of the Jewish revolt. Weber has, however, given reasons for supposing that Hadrian went westwards, at any rate as far as Bithynia, before the winter set and that his were rather before than behind in, troops ' him.1 Moreover, although the title pater patriae' was offered to Hadrian by the senate at his accession, and appears on a few coins of 117, it was rejected by the emperor, and only accepted ten years later.2 It is unlikely, therefore, that it should have been used by his own bodyguard in an official dedication at so early a period. (2) In I29 Hadrian came again to Syria, and spent the winter of I29-I30 at Antioch.3 The province, however, was then peaceful, and there seems no reason why he should have quartered his body- guard for the winter so far off as Gerasa. (3) Far more suitable are the circumstances of Hadrian's last visit to Syria on the occasion of the Jewish revolt of 132.4 The emperor's presence on this occasion was due directly to military necessity, and there can be no doubt that he would have brought his guard with him and used it in the field. The cities of the Decapolis were always exposed to peculiar enmity on the part of the Jews; at the outbreak of the first Jewish revolt, in 69, Gerasa itself had been attacked.5 It would not be surprising, therefore, to find troops stationed in the city to protect it during the intervals between active hostilities. The supposition would date our inscription to the winter of 132 or 133, since the Equites Singulares must have ac- companied the emperor back to Rome in 134,6 and this date would agree very well with the identification of Valerius Bassus, who is mentioned as a ' decurio' on this inscription, with a man of the same name who appears five to seven years later occupying the ' slightly more exalted post of centurio exercitator.' The text, then, may be accepted as a slight but interesting contribution to the somewhat obscure history of the final effort of the Jews to resist Roman supremacy.

l Weber, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des ibid. p. 275. Hadrianus, pp. 56-60. 5 , Bell. Sud. ii, 18, I. 2 6 ibid. p. 60. See Weber, op. cit. p. 276 for the date of 3 ibid. p. 234. Hadrian's return to Rome.

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