Original scientific paper
The stone urn of T. Domitia Ianuaria from Salona
Diana Čorić
orcid.org/0009-0007-3925-6790
Dražen Maršić
orcid.org/0000-0003-4582-7792
; Sveučilište u Zadru Odjel za arheologiju
Abstract
The paper deals with the stone urn of T. Domitia Ianuaria, kept in the back courtyard of the Archaeological Museum in Split (Fig. 1-3), precisely with its container. It was discovered in the late 19th century in Salona, near the present day Solin railway station. Now it is covered with a lid originally belonging to a gladiator urn, somewhat larger, found in the Salona’s northern necropolis.The container front side is dominated by a tabula ansata with, its inscription completely preserved. Within each of the triangular handles (ansae) placed radially there are two acanthus leaves spreading towards the field’s outer angles. The remaining area is filled with smaller triangles with acanthus leaf leaning against the tabula handle. The decoration does not pass to the lateral sides (Fig. 2-3). At the top of the container lateral sides cut are canals for insertion of iron cramps that connected the urn with the lid. The inscription, catalogued
as CIL 3, 9043, reads:
T · DOMITIAE
IANVARIAE · FIL
DEF · ANNOR · XVIII
C · DOMITIVS
NICIAS · PATER
The urn is presented in the Bullettino di archeologia e storia dalmata of Split with a drawing, where the upper and the bottom edges are marked with wavelines, indicating fragmentariness of the monument (Fig. 4a). The drawing also shows the fields at the sides of the inscription, but not the ansae. Additional problem is the lack of a description. In the CIL the urn is presented with similar wavelines, but with no edge areas. Because of the impression that the monument is fragmentary and the inscription incomplete, before the sigla T assumed is the letter E, and at the end the conjunction et (Fig. 4b). This paper is an attempt to correct this. The inscription certainly begins with the sigla T, separated from the dative case Domitiae with a triangular punctuation, certainly the sigla of the deceased person’s yet another name or a sepulchral word. Possibilities are the words titulus, theca or tumulus, in this case to be envisaged in the accusative case. However, in the epigraphic materials of Salona and the surrounding areas none of these appears at the beginning of inscriptions,
but in the middle or at the end, whereas the word theca is absolutely unknown! A possible use of the words titulum, thecam or tumulum (accusative) is connected with yet another problem – at the end of the inscription do not appear the words posuit or fecit, that would be expected in that case. The conclusion is that T may only make the sigla of the deceased person’s name. This notion is the second main motivation for writing this paper, which is continued by discussing that only two meanings of the sigla may be possible. The first one is that the T is the sigla of a nomen gentile, that is, that the deceased had
two of them – T() and Domitia – where the first one took the place of the praenomen. Such case G. Alföldy and A. Kurilić assumed in the inscription ILJug 2827 from Varvaria, where the name Tit. Fla. Crescentilla appears, the first element of which the two authors explained as Titia. According to the adding Tit(ae) (dative case) it appears that A. and J. Šašel support the opinion on the praenomen (ILJug 2827), that is definitely agreed with by M. Kajava. The argument taken by Kurilić to support this interpretation is that «the praenomen should be abbreviated only to T. (as it is the common practice for the male praenomen Titus)».
From its abbreviation to the initial sigla, the name may also be interpreted as the diseased person’s praenomen! Female praenomina are rarely found in the epigraphic material, that is, rarely can be confirmed simultaneous use of the praenomen and the cognomen. The phenomenon of the Roman female praenomina in the west has particularly been studied by M. Kajava. All the circumstances and the ways in which women were given their praenomen are still unclear. Their presence can be discussed with certainty or a large probability only in a small number of examples. For the purposes of this paper, and for comparison sake, presented are three female names beginning with the same sigla T, similar to the inscription of Salona:
1. AE 1966, 289; Upper Panonia (Carnuntum) – T. Flavia T. F. Vegeti l. Prima, 1st ct. AD.
2. CIL 8, 5535; Numidia (Thibilis) – T. Borocia T. f. Quir. Valentina, 2nd-3rd ct. AD.
3. RIU 2 0544; Upper Panonia (Brigetium) – T. Claudia Aemerita (father T. Cla. Severianus),
2nd-3rd ct. AD.
Kajava holds in these examples the first name to be praenomen abbreviated by the common practice by abbreviating the male praenomen Titus and that this name appears in two forms – Tita and Titia (with the sufix -ia). The Latin inscriptions digital bases usually make no difference between the two forms and almost as a rule present the adding T(itia). The three selected inscription provide large possibilities for interpretations, because they contain the patronage (no. 1), or filiation or the diseased person’s father’s name (no. 2, 3). In our case we are deprived of this, nor do we learn the mother’s name, this making any
discussion as why the name was given ineffective Of the two possible name interpretations, the authors prefer the latter – that this is
probably the sigla of the praenomen Tita / Titia. This is indicated first of all by the way the name is abbreviated. As about the question what version of the name this is, neither the version Tita can be excluded. Hence the inscription restitution is proposed to read: T(itiae vel -itae) Domitiae / Ianuariae fil(iae) / def(unctae) annor(um) XVIII / C(aius) Domitius / Nicias pater.
Today the urn container is covered with a gable shaped lid with corner acroteria, originally belonging to another rectangular urn (Fig. 1-3). It was discovered in 1890, north of the Salona’s amphitheatre. Today we know that this locality is the western part of the northern necropolis and that this is a find from the gladiators’ cemetery. When found, all over the lid there were traces of red colour, at places visible even today. In the acroteria inscribed are the abreviations D M. Above those there are figures that are believed to show a leg guard above the letter D and a dagger with a ribbon or strap above the letter M. Below the invocation to the Mani, at the bottom edge of the lid, there is the inscription (CIL 3, 13062) that, together with the abreviations D M, reads:
D M
HAEC · VIA · TAL · PULVERA ·
Below the inscription presented is a trident (tridens or fuscina) flanked with two triangular punctuations. Given the presentations of arms in the acroteria and the trident below the inscription, it can be concluded that the deceased was a gladiator and that during his lifetime he had fought as a retiarius and possibly also as a secutor. The restitution of the phrase following the invocation to the Mani should be read: D(is) M(anibus). Haec via tal(ia) pulvera.
The lid is included in the discussion on the Ianuaria’s urn for two reasons: because in the Museum it is used as the urn lid (or vice versa), and because at its lateral sides there are canals for metal cramps, by their direction almost completely corresponding to the direction of the canals of the same purpose at the lateral sides of the container (Fig. 2, 3). This indicates that the Ianuaria’s urn almost certainly had a lid of the same shape, and it is to be believed that its acroteria had sigles D M. This is not surprising because the two monuments, besides their equivalency, were produced roughly at the same time as well.
Due to the epigraphic-onomastic properties of the Ianuaria’s inscription, especially the fact that the commemorator still has tria nomina, that is, the praenomen is not discarded, the urn may with great certainty be dated to the latter half of the 2nd or the early 3rd centuries AD, that is, the time of the Late Principate. However, the gladiator urn lid, same as the entire cemetery concerned, are dated to the latter half of the 2nd century AD.
Keywords
urn; tabula ansata; polyonymy; praenomen; gable lid
Hrčak ID:
292834
URI
Publication date:
9.12.2022.
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