Original scientific paper
Inscriptiones Spalatenses ineditae 2: the funerary altar of Numeria Victorina from Veli Varoš
Dino Demicheli
orcid.org/0000-0002-5911-7903
; University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Archaeology I. Lučića 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The inscription on the Roman funerary altar found
in the Veli Varoš section of Split in 2004 is analysed
in this work. The inscription mentions the deceased
Numeria Victorina and her grandson Gnaeus Sulpicius
Proculus, who was probably related to Lucius
Sulpicius Proculus, the actarius of cohors VIII Voluntariorum
and the dedicant of an altar to Minerva in
Tilurium. The Split monument may be dated to approximately
the mid-2nd cenutry, while the Tilurium
altar originated sometime in the latter half of the 2nd century, although not much later than the one from
Split. Besides the assumption that the people mentioned
on them were residents of the Salona ager,
the inscription is intriguing due to the confirmation
of two gentilicia that were not common on the territory
of Dalmatia. Veli Varoš itself is located on the
way to the Ad Dianam site, which is recorded on the
Tabula Peutingeriana, and all previous finds in this
area suggest that it was inhabited in Antiquity prior to
the construction of Diocletian’s Palace. Even though
the inscription was not found in an archaeological
context, it is assumed that it belonged to a necropolis
that had emerged along the road that ran westward
from Roman-era Spalatum, i.e., toward Ad Dianam.
All previously found inscriptions in Veli Varoš, like
those from nearby Šperun and Dobri, are sepulchral in
character, and in the Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum
they are listed as being from Salona. This author assumes
that at least a portion of the Veli Varoš inscriptions
were from a settlement with a necropolis that existed
prior to the construction of Diocletian’s Palace,
to which the section of a necropolis in Teutina street
would testify.
Keywords
inscriptions; Antiquity; Split Peninsula; Veli Varoš; Salona; Ad Dianam; cohors VIII Voluntariorum
Hrčak ID:
173037
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2016.
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