Inscriptiones Spalatenses ineditae 2: the funerary altar of Numeria Victorina from Veli Varoš

Demicheli, Dino. (2016). Inscriptiones Spalatenses ineditae 2: the funerary altar of Numeria Victorina from Veli Varoš. Vjesnik za arheologiju i povijest dalmatinsku, 109(1). pp. 177-191. ISSN 1845-7789

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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.

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