Some New A ntique Monuments

Abstract

In 1947 while the edifice for the Planning' Commission in the court-yard of the printing-office »Merkur« in G regorčičeva ulica was being built, broken stone monuments Nos. 1 , 3 and 4 w ere excavated. The first two had been used as building m aterial in the groundw ork of the antique tow er at the outer side of the w estern p art of Emona walls. The inscription No. 1 in grayish lim e 1 stone, broken into six pieces and fragm entary, m ention^ a soldier of 2 nd praetorian cohort Pudens, who died in 14 A. D., at the tim e w hen DruS'us (Tac. Ann. I. 24,30) was ordered by em peror Tiberius to pacify the rebellious Pannonian legions in the (Surroundings of N auportus. M onument No. 3 of w hitish lim estone is fragm entary, too, and broken into two pieces; it tells us it was erected by the non-commissioned officer Marcus Sentius A lexander in the m em ory of hiš com rade M. A urelius C rispinianus, a soldier of XIIIth legion Gemina. It is even possible that the above-m entioned Sentius was a relation of a civilian of the same nam e from Apulium in D acia (CIL III. No. 7748) w here that legion was garrisoned. Thus the m onum ent originated in the reign of em peror G alienus (253—268 A. D.) when the Roman arm y abandoned D acia for ever; yet some partis thereof w ere proved to have been at P tu j (Abramić, Poetovio, str. 183, Hoffiiller-Säria, A ntike Inschriften aus Jugoslaw ien pp. 147 sq.). The upper p art of the m arble tombstone, decorated by dolphins, belongs as to its shape and beautiful elaboration to 1 st century A. D. M onument No. 2 of w hite limestone was found in Aškerčeva ulica near the Roman cloaca. It is significant that in the acroterion the plastic, badly ela[1]borated rosette is divided by a G reek hewn-in cross into four parts. It had been erected by C. Bononius Achilleus for Ms m other-in-law I Iberia. His m other-in-law had been probably born in the reign of em peror 1 iberius (J4—3 7 A. D.j, and it is possible that the monument was erected about the y ear 1 0 0 A. D. Bononius A chilleus was probably of G reek origin, and it is possible th a t he was C hristian. The hew n-in cross in the acroterion which was used here as an ornam ent seem s to confirm th a t view. Two m ore m onu[1]m ents in L ju b ljan a (CIL 111. 3860 and 3895, H offiller-Saria, AIJ No. 185 and No. 216) have a hew n-in hidden cross in th eir rosette; one m onum ent from T riest has in its rosette a cross very sim ilar to ours. This m onum ent (CIL Y. No. 475. D egrassi, Inscriptiones Italiae, Yol. X. Regio X. Fase. III. Histrda Sep[1]tentrionalis No. 50) originates from the period after C onstatine the G reat already, and it is certainly C hristian. Thus it is su re th a t in our case the C hristian G reek A chilleus has come to Emona, and th a t we have here a very ea rly ancient C hristian m onum ent, probably from about the year 1 0 0 A. D