DiscussionFragment of base for statue, perhaps of Vicarius Usulenius Prosper(ius?), governor of Baetica. Corduba (Baetica). 337-370 INSCRIPTION------] / Vicario Usulenio P̣rospẹṛị[o(?)], / v(iro) c(larissimo), c(onsulari) p(rovinciae) B(aeticae), statuam equestrem / [------ '... [set up] the equestrian statue to Vicarius Usulenius Prosper [or Prosperius], of clarissimus rank, governor (consularis) of the province of Baetica ... ' Letter height: 4.5 - 4.7 cm. We reproduce the inscription here in the reading, and with the completions, offered by Stylow 2000, 430, and justified by him on pp. 427-8. Stylow reads Vicario Usulenio Prosperi[o?] as a dative indicating the honorand of the inscription. Alternatively, it might be read as an ablative indicating the officials taking charge of a dedication to an emperor by the city of Corduba or the province of Baetica. If so, vicarius could be read, not as part of a name ('Vicarius Usulenius Prosperius'), but instead as the title of a vicar of the Spanish provinces whose name preceded it and is now lost (see below, 'Honorand, Awarder, and Date'). DESCRIPTION (from Stylow 2000 and the published photo) Fragment of a marble statue base, cut to serve as a capital on top of the 9th column of the 17th row of columns in the Great Mosque (now cathedral) of Córdoba (Stylow 2000, 425): H 28, W 56, D 60 cm. The original base has been cut horizontally at the top and bottom, reducing it to a present height of 28 cm; the front-surface was subsequently cut back into a moulding. In width and depth the block preserves its original dimensions. The epigraphic field is set back and framed by a moulding which is still visible to the left and right of the extant part of the inscription. The same frame is partially preserved on the back, while both sides are plain. Of the inscription, only one line is fully preserved, while of a line above only the lower edges of the letters are visible. The reading of this upper line is made difficult by the fact that the letters slope upwards from left to right (so that those on the right disappear into the lost part of the base). While the inscription mentions an equestrian statue, the measurements of the base clearly show that it must have been for a standing statue. The original frame on the back (which partially survives) excludes the possibility that the block was only part of the base for an equestrian statue made up of a multitude of blocks set in a row. This contradiction can be resolved either by the assumption that Prosper received two statues, one on foot, one equestrian, which were both mentioned in the text (Stylow 2000, 431 with n. 21-2 for a similar case from the early principate; see also LSA-2, LSA-423, a marble and a bronze statue for Theodorus in Athens); or that the text stressed the humility of an honorand, offered an equestrian statue, but content with one on foot (Stylow 2000, 431 with n. 23 for a similar case). The modestia of the honorand is indeed repeatedly stressed in late-antique inscriptions, but usually with reference to the humbler statue accepted, rather than to the grander one declined. PROVENANCE AND CURRENT LOCATION The fragment was first noticed in 1998 in the cathedral of Córdoba where it is still in situ. The photo, referred to by Stylow 2000, in M. Nieto Cumpido, La catedral de Córdoba, Córdoba 1998, 90, was not available to us. HONORAND, AWARDER AND DATE The reading and interpretation of the first line of the surviving fragment present problems. Vicario could be read as the title (of a vicar), rather than as part of a name (see above, 'Inscription'). For the arguments in favour of a name (a cognomen), see Stylow 2000, 427-8 and the critical account by Alicia Maria Canto in Hispania Epigraphica 8, p. 59. The name Usulenius, as Stylow 2000, 430-1 points out, reoccurs in Barcino and Narbo and makes it probable that the honorand was a native of that region. The apparent honorand, Vicarius Usulenius Prosper (or Prosperius), is known only from this inscription, which informs us that he was governor of Baetica at a time when the province was under governors of the rank of consulares and clarissimi. The province of Baetica was administered by praesides of equestrian (perfectissimus) rank in the wake of the tetrarchic reforms, and only upgraded to be administered by consulares of senatorial (clarissimus) rank towards the middle of the 4th century, possibly under Constantius II in the wake of his defeat of Magnentius (353). A secure terminus post quem is therefore provided by the last attestation of an equestrian praeses of the province, Egnatius Faustinus, in December 337 (PLRE I, 328, Egnatius Faustinus 9; Stylow 2000, 434 with n. 35). The extreme rarity of statue dedications in Iberia after about 350, strongly suggests that our base dates to the middle years of the century. Main ReferenceHispania epigraphica, Madrid, 8, 2002 no. 180L'Année épigraphique, Paris, 2000, 735 Discussion ReferencesJones, A. H. M. et al., The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Vol. I 260-395, Cambridge et al. 1971 (1975), Stylow, A. U., Nuevo gobernador de la Bética del siglo IV, Gerión 18, 425-437, Madrid 2000, |
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