DiscussionLost base for statue of Postumius Lampadius, governor of Campania and city patron. Capua (Campania). 390 - 407. INSCRIPTIONIn ten lines: Postumio Lampadio, v(iro) c(larissimo) / et inlustri, cons(ulari) Camp(aniae), / restitutori patriae / et redintegratori oper(u)m /(5) publicorum, ordinis provisori, / populi subventori, ob insignia / eius unibersa (sic), patrono longe / a maioribus originali, ordo / Capuensis voti et obsequi sui /(10) pignus locavit. ’Postumius Lampadius, of clarissimus and inlustris rank, governor (consularis) of Campania, restorer of the fatherland and renewer of public works, provider of the councillors and reliever of the people, on account of all his distinctions and to a patron by descent through a long ancestry; the councillors of Capua placed [this statue] as a symbol of a vow and obedience to him.’ Letter height not recorded. The first four lines, underlined here, were lost when the inscription was recorded for CIL (see below, ’Provenance and Current Location’). DESCRIPTION (from CIL) CIL, the only modern publisher of the text, has no description of the block. No measurements are published, and there is no published image. According to Sandelli, one of the sources of CIL, the inscription was found together with a headless statue (CIL). CIL has no record of the type of the statue, nor of its location. PROVENANCE AND CURRENT LOCATION The inscription was first recorded in Capua by the scholar Horatius a Valle in the 16th century. From this early recording lines 1-4 were adopted into CIL. Mommsen saw the lower portion of the inscription (lines 5-10), when preparing CIL X, in Capua at the corner of the Via del Seminario and the Via della Concezione in 1846.The upper portion was broken off at that time and lost, and also the lower portion was destroyed shortly after (paullo post periit). Sandelli, one of the sources of CIL (see above, ’Description’), recorded that our inscription was found in the ruins of the amphitheatre of Capua. HONORAND, AWARDER AND DATE Postumius Lampadius, the honorand, was of senatorial (clarissimus et inlustris, lines 1-2) rank (PLRE II, 656 Postumius Lampadius 7). The only office recorded by our inscription is the provincial governorship (consularis) in Campania. He must have held this office before he held the higher ranking office of prefect of the city of Rome in 403/8; the latest possible date for the office in Campania is therefore 407, which we adopt as terminus ante quem for our inscription (but see also below, ‘Further Discussion‘). There is no terminus post quem; however, we think it is safe to assume that Lampadius held the prestigious governorship in Campania not long before he was promoted to the higher ranking offices of prefect of the city (in 403/8) and of praetorian prefect (in 409), hence in the late-4th/ early-5th century.. Lampadius was a native of Capua (restitutori patriae, line 3). He was a patron of the city, an office which is said to have been inherited for generations in his family (patrono longe a maioribus originali, lines 7-8). Lampadius is on record in our sample with a further statue he set up or re-erected in Neapolis (LSA-1906). Our inscription was set up by the city council of Capua (ordo Capuensis, lines 8-9). FURTHER DISCUSSION Strikingly our inscription styles the honorand vir clarissimus et inlustris, although the governors of Campania, the only office recorded by our inscription, were mere viri clarissimi; this is indeed the rank recorded on an inscription set up by Postumius in Neapolis during his governorship (LSA-1906). Postumius was elevated to offices associated with the highest senatorial ranking class of illustris after his governorship in Campania (see above, ‘Honorand, Awarder and Date‘). It is possible that our inscription was set up after Postumius was promoted to a higher ranking class and that the provincials only recorded the office immediately relevant to them. PLRE on contrast suggested that the recording of illustris rank by our inscription was a flattery. Main ReferenceCorpus Inscriptionum Latinarum; , X, 3860Dessau, H., Inscriptiones latinae selectae, Berlin 3rd ed. 1962, 1276 Discussion ReferencesMartindale, J. R., The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Vol. II A.D. 395-527, Cambridge 1980, 656 Linkhttp://www.edr-edr.it/edr_programmi/res_complex_comune.php?do=book&id_nr=EDR005696&provinz=&land=&fo_antik=&Bibliografia=&Testo=&booltesto=AND&Testo2=&bool=AND&ordinamento=id_nr&javasi=javascriptsi&se_foto=tutte&lang=ita |
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