Site logo
Discussion
Thumbnail

Discussion

Lost fragmentary base for statue of vicar (name lost). Lepcis Magna (Tripolitania). 300-318

INSCRIPTION
Partly preserved in five lines:

- - - - - -/ [..]V[- - -] / v(iro) p(erfectissimo) age[nti vices] / praeff(ectorum) [praetorio] / ob in[- - -] /(5) [..]pa[- - -]

To …, of perfectissimus rank, acting in the place of the praetorian prefects...on account of his...

Letter height 5–5.5 cm.

DESCRIPTION
The fragment is today lost (see below, ‘Provenance and Current Location’) and there is no image to document it. According to its first editor (Reynolds 1955) it is a fragment from the left side of a base of grey marble (probably Proconnesian); H 43, W 24, D 13.5 cm. The inscription is carved over an erased earlier one (of undetermined age); the epigraphic field is surrounded by a moulded frame.

PROVENANCE AND CURRENT LOCATION
The inscription was first recorded in 1955 on the Severan forum. It once lay in one of the tabernae in the eastern part of the forum. There it was not traceable in 2010; it is possibly lost.

HONORAND AND DATE
The name of the honorand is lost; he was a vicar of equestrian rank (perfectissimus, lines 2-3). He is not listed among the anonymi in PLRE. The equestrian rank provides a terminus ante quem of c.325 when, probably in the wake of the reform of the praetorian prefectures, the office of vicar was elevated to senatorial rank (clarissimus) rank. The terminus is further lowered by the fact that in Africa as early as 318 a vicar of senatorial rank is testified to (Locrius Verinus, PLRE I 951-2 Locrius Verinus 2). Possible candidates for our honorand are the vicars Valerius (Domitius) Alexander (303-8), Patricius (c.313), Aelafius (313-14), Aelius Paulinus (314), Verus (315), Domitius Celsus (315-16), or Eumelius (316) (PLRE I, 1079 (Fasti)).

Ignazio Tantillo & Francesca Bigi

Main Reference

Tantillo, I. and F. Bigi (eds.), Leptis Magna. Una città e le sue iscrizioni in epoca tardoromana, Cassino 2010, 355-6, no. 25

Reynolds, J. M. & J. B. Ward-Perkins, The Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania. In collaboration with S. Aurigemma, R. Bartoccini, G. Caputo, R. Goodchild, P. Romanelli, Roma 1952, no. 978