Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/mnlqgcrexy
Dalmatia after 9 AD: Separate Province or Part of the Province of Illyricum?
Nikola Cesarik
orcid.org/0000-0002-0128-0687
Abstract
The author discusses the issue of the precise dating of the division of Illyricum into two separate provinces, Dalmatia and Pannonia. Emphasis is laid on the function of the praepositus, which Velleius Paterculus in his narrative attributes to Valerius Messallinus (praepositus Illyrico) and Vibius Postumus (praepositus Delmatiae), while the vast majority of attention is given to the analysis of different transcript versions of the inscription CIL III 1741 from Epidaurum. Scholarly literature undisputedly agrees that it mentions the province of Upper Illyricum (Superior provincia Illyricum), due to which it was held as key proof that Illyricum had been divided into two separate provinces as early as the end of Augustus' or the beginning of Tiberius' principate at the latest. However, epigraphical
inconsistencies of the generally accepted version of the inscription, along with its variant transcripts lead to an entirely different conclusion from the assumptions submitted to date. Based on the analysis of the mentioned transcripts, the author concludes that the inscription was most probably erected by the upper communities of the Province of Illyricum (civitates superiores provinciae Illyrici). Consequently, it is concluded that, in the formal and legal sense, until the reign of Flavian emperors, Illyricum remained a separate province (provincia Illyricum), divided into two exercitus(Dalmatian and
Pannonian), under indirect rule of the emperor's legates of consular rank. An analogy with this kind of provincial organisation may be found in Hispania Tarraconensis, and especially in Germania.
Keywords
Dalmatia; Illyricum; province; Velleius Paterculus; praepositus; Epidaurum; P. Cornelius Dolabella; inscription transcript
Hrčak ID:
288062
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2022.
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