Extra Content

Discussion

Base for statue of unknown, possibly patron of province. Sicca Veneria (Africa proconsularis). 300-392

INSCRIPTION
Partly preserved in two lines:

------ / [--- patro]no provincia[e ---] / [---]ius Faustinianus, pontifex, cur(ator) r(ei) p(ublicae).

'To (...) patron of the province (?) (…) Faustinianus, priest, curator of the city (res publica).'

Letter height 6 cm.

DESCRIPTION (from CIL VIII)
No description is given by CIL. No measurements are published, and there is no published image.

PROVENANCE AND CURRENT LOCATION
The inscription was recorded in the post office at Le-Kef by CIL in 1891. There is no recent record of its location.

HONORAND, AWARDER AND DATE
The name of the honorand is lost in our inscription; he was possibly a patron of the province (line 1).

--ius Faustinianus, the awarder, was a local man; he held the priestly office of pontifex and was curator of the city (on curator see LSA-2406).

The fact that a Decurion of the city holds the office of curator rei publicae indicates a date in the 45h century to our inscription (Lepelley 1981). The record of the priestly office of pontifex dates it before the interdiction of public manifestations of pagan cults in 392 (Codex Theodosianus XVI, 10, 2).

Ulrich Gehn

Main Reference

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum; , VIII, 15878

Lepelley, C., Les cités de l'Afrique romaine au Bas-Empire, t. 2, Notices d'histoire municipale, Paris 1981, 159 no. 4