MAMA XI 166 (Kidyessos)

Votive base of tribune of Constantiniani

Type of monument:: Votive base.
Location:: Çayhisar (Kidyessos): outside a house on the right bank of the stream, said to have been brought from the hisar.
Description:: White Dokimeian marble base or column-plinth, broken above and behind. Inscribed on all three surviving faces; on the under surface, an incised circle, perhaps a setting-mark.
Dimensions:: Ht. 0.36+; W. 0.45 (shaft), 0.51 (lower moulding); Th. 0.40+ (shaft), 0.43+ (lower moulding); letters 0.045 (front), 0.018-0.021 (left side), 0.020-0.031
Record:: Drawing; squeezes; MB notebook copy; photograph (1956/6).
Publication:: None.
Date:: Fourth to sixth century AD.

I
(left hand face)
[Ἐμμανου]-
[ήλ·]
μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν ὁ
θ(εό)ς

II
(left hand face)
- - - - - - - - - -
[- - - - -]ΤΗ[- - -]Ω̣Ν̣
[- - - - -]τ̣ω ῥύσεο πάτρην
[ἀπὸ τῶν]δε κακῶν· πανυπερ-
[τάτων] δ᾿ ἀγαθῶν αὔξη-
5[σιν α]ὐτός γε θέλις.

III
(left hand face)
[- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ὁ λαμ]-
πρ(ότατος) τριβ(οῦνος) νουμέρο̣υ̣ [τῶν]
γενν(αιοτάτων) καὶ καθοσιω[μ(ένων)]
Κωνσταντινιανῶ[ν]
εὐξάμενος τῇ ἁγ[ίᾳ]
5τριάδι ἀνέστησα hed.

I: [Emmanuel]: God is with us. II: ...you might save the homeland [from the]se evils; for you yourself seek the incr[ease] of the greatest blessings. III: ...the most glorious (clarissimus) tribune of the numerus of the most brave and loyal Constantiniani, in fulfillment of a vow, I set this up to the Holy Trinity.

The invocation on the front face derives from Matthew I:23, Ἐμμανουήλ, ὅ ἐστιν μεθερμηνευόμενον· μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν ὁ θεός. Epigraphical instances of the formula are collected by Feissel 1983: 230-1, no. 274 (Stobi). If my restorations on the left-hand face are correct, either an emperor or God is being praised for saving (ῥύσεο, II line 2, i.e. ῥύσαιο) the region from evils of some kind.

The inscription on the right-hand face records the erection of the monument (whatever it was) by a tribune of a military unit described as a numerus Constantinianorum. The epithets γενναιότατος and καθωσιωμένος are regularly used of soldiers and military units from the fourth to the sixth centuries AD: see in particular I.Beroia 443 (fifth or sixth century AD), στρατευσαμένου ἐν τῷ γεννεοτάτου ἀριθμοῦ τῶν καθοσιωμ(ένων) σαγιτταρίων, with the parallels collected by Feissel 1983: 69-70 (add RECAM II 450 [Tavium], ὁ καθοσιομ(ένος) Φλαβ(ιάλις)). The numerus Constantinianorum must surely be identical to the elite infantry unit (auxilium palatinum, 600-700 men) of the Constantiniani, mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum Orientis (VI 52) as belonging to the forces (stationed in Asia Minor) of the second magister militum praesentalis. The Constantiniani are epigraphically attested elsewhere in western Asia Minor, on the tombstone of a member of a subdivision (bandon) of the Constantiniani at Pylai in Bithynia, dating to AD 531 (SEG 45, 1692: [σ]τρατούτης δευτέ[ρο]υ [β]άνδου Κοσταν[τ]ινηακῶν; see further Zuckerman 1995; Scharf 1997; Zuckerman 1998). The fragmentary state (and uncertain dating) of the present inscription is frustrating. The left-hand face could well be referring to a campaign in which the unit took part; in that case, the anonymous tribune may well have dedicated this monument in fulfillment of a vow made in advance of the campaign.