34-35 (phs.) (Di Segni) (ed. pr.) | |
751, no. 562 (Feissel) |
SEG 56 (2006): 1899; 61 (2011): 1441
At the northern end of the northern mosaic panel of the prayer hall.
The rectangular frame of this inscription is traced in black tesserae on a white background and measures 37 x 287 cm; the letters are also traced in black tesserae and are 8-10 cm high. The last two words of the third line are in smaller letters. An ivy leaf adorns the beginning of the third line. The inscription relates the name of the person who paid for the pavement and that of the artist who carried out the work.
Γαϊανὸς ὁ καὶ Πορφύρι(ο)ς (ἑκατοντάρχης) ἀδελφὸς ἡμῶν φιλο-
τειμησάμενος ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων
☙ ἐψηφολόγησε. Βρούτι(ο)ς ἠργάσετα[ι.]
Gaianus, also called Porphyrius, centurion, our brother, has made the pavement at his own expense as an act of liberality. Brutius has carried out the work.
L.3 ἠργάσετ[ο?] for ἠργάσατ[ο] Tybout apud SEG.
Dedicatory mosaic building inscription of Gaianus the centurion, at the northern end of the northern panel of the prayer hall.
The Greek letters chi and rho, set one above the other, form a well-known abbreviation of the word ekatontarches (centurion). This abbreviation is typical of the second and third centuries CE; its latest dated occurrence in our region is in an inscription of the year 325 CE from Bostra (see also e.g., IGLS XIII, Nos. 9088, 9089; IGLJ II, No. 30; SEG 34, No. 1519).
In spite of his position in the Roman army, the centurion chose Greek rather than Latin for his inscription. He identified himself not by his official name — the Roman name consisting of praenomen, gentilicium and cognomen, and in this period usually reduced to the last two elements—but by his cognomen, that is his given name, Gaianus, and his signum, or surname, Porphyrius. The use of a signum was common in the late first, second and third centuries CE, and faded away in the fourth century CE. Porphyrius is a Greek name while Gaianus, in spite of its Latin sound, may well be a transcription of the Arab name Ghaiyan. Non-Latin names—in this region mainly Greek and Semitic—were not uncommon among Roman legionaries and non-commissioned officers, especially after the year 212 CE, when Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all the freeborn inhabitants of the empire.
The use of the signum and the choice of the Greek language indicate that the centurion was writing in a private capacity rather than in his official position as a Roman officer. This is confirmed by the content of the inscription. The mention of his liberality and the fact that he had paid for the mosaic from his own purse indicates that he was not laying a pavement in his own house, but making an offering in a public, or at least a communal space. The reference to him as “our brother” shows that he was a member of a religious congregation; hence the hall, for the adornment of which he displayed his generosity, must have been the meeting place of this congregation. It is worth noting that the inscription in itself has no typical Christian characteristics, for any cultic or religious association could refer to its members as ‘brothers’ (for instance, this term was used for initiates in the sanctuary of Zeus Dolichenus on the Aventine in Rome and in a Mithraeum at Bingen in Germany).
The name of the artist, Brutius, is a well-known Roman gentilicium. He may also have been a soldier. As the Roman army was often, in times of peace, employed in building projects, some soldiers did acquire special trade skills (for instance, an inscription from Africa mentions a centurion who specialized in making tunnels for water conduits), but the art of laying decorative mosaics does not seem to have been within the compass of building activities practiced by the army. Perhaps Brutius was a freedman who had acquired his Roman name with his emancipation from a Roman master; but it is quite possible that he was a local man, since natives sometimes adopted Roman names for their children in imitation of Roman culture.