Roman Epigraphy

This conference undertakes a comparative exploration of archival agency in ancient and medieval societies, drawing on the expertise of scholars of different periods and regions of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The goal is to examine the dynamics and effects of archives, both at the level of institutions and administration, and in the domains of documentary culture and knowledge production. Papers will consider institutional aspects (such as record–keeping procedures and strategies of information management) as well as theoretical and cultural dimensions of archiving (e.g. archives as an epistemic infrastructure or as reflecting a particular administrative ideology) while focusing specifically on questions of agency: how does the conception and configuration of archives, the work archives are intended to perform and practical manifestations thereof, affect and shape behavior, ideas, norms, and power dynamics in a given society or administrative system? In other words: how and why did ancient and medieval archives matter?

A further goal of the conference will be a critical examination of scholarly notions of the premodern, revisiting traditional classifications of administrative systems based on their (in)capacity to store and wield information, and reconsidering what have been theorized as the hallmarks of the modern state.

The partial excavation of the military bath proved that the bath was smaller and further south than depicted in the
previous publication. The investigation resulted in the excavation of the drainage channel of the cold-water basin, the
praefurnium of the caldarium and part of the caldarium. The furnace between the side walls of the praefurnium contained
thick ash layers, and two big stone slabs lay under them. The stamped tiles discovered attest to the activity of the cohors
I Alpinorum equitata. This unit had its garrison in Sărățeni and probably the architects of this unit had expertise in the
construction of the baths and participated in building projects nearby, as in the baths in Inlăceni and in Călugăreni. It is to
be supposed that an aqueduct brought the fresh water to the bath from fountains of the Hill Firtoş.
The tiles of the hypocaust pillars of various shapes and sizes, including quadrilateral and circular ones with a
thickness between 7 and 15 cm indicate multiple repairs. While the building of the bath can be dated to the first half of the
2nd century, these repairs could have taken place at the end of this century or in the first half of the 3rd century, according
to the tiles with the stamp of cohors IIII Hispanorum.

The 2025 archaeological campaign at Porolissum continued previous investigations in the area of the praetorium,
focusing on the western side of this monumental complex. Funded by the National Programme for Systematic
Archaeological Research of the Romanian Ministry of Culture and supported by the Romanian Academy – Cluj-Napoca
Branch, the campaign aimed to complete the excavation of trench S4/2024 (9 × 6 m) and refine the chronological
sequence of the building’s construction phases. The research confirmed the results of earlier geophysical surveys,
revealing a coherent architectural evolution from an initial wooden phase to three successive stone phases. The earliest
stone building included a western portico, later preserved and modified through subsequent phases, while the final
construction stage employed opus mixtum techniques. Room B was reorganized and equipped with a hypocaust system,
suggesting a heated area within the praetorium. Stratigraphic correlations indicate differential access routes between
rooms A, B, and C, likely from the inner courtyard and the southern sector. The study refines the building’s relative
chronology and functional evolution, highlighting the architectural complexity of the site. Future excavations will target
the inner courtyard—to identify the access routes—and the southwest corner of the building, where the praefurnium
associated with the heating system is presumed to be located

Questo studio presenta la prima analisi sistematica del complesso epigrafico tardo‑repubblicano, imperiale e tardoantico di Terracina, con particolare attenzione alla lista giulio‑claudia dei coloni (EDR156764) e alle quattro iscrizioni di Avianio Vindiciano (EDR156747; EDR080036; EDR072493; EDR156746). La ricerca nasce dall’osservazione diretta della base statuario‑onoraria conservata nell’androne del Palazzo Comunale, sulla quale è incisa una lunga serie di nomi appartenenti ai dedicanti terracinesi del I secolo d.C. Tale documento, pur essendo un campione epigrafico e non demografico, offre un’opportunità unica per ricostruire la composizione sociale della colonia civium Romanorum di Terracina.

L’indagine integra epigrafia, onomastica, paleografia, prosopografia, topografia urbana e analisi statistica, confrontando i dati locali con i corpora di Ostia, Pompei e Roma. La lista dei coloni, databile con alta probabilità all’età giulio‑claudia (40–60 d.C.), rivela una comunità articolata: 63–69% cittadini ingenui, 20–25% liberti (di cui 9–11% liberti imperiali), presenza significativa di gentilizi locali e cognomina greci indicativi di mobilità sociale. L’analisi considera i principali bias strutturali (genere, status, conservazione, rappresentatività, selezione economica), necessari per evitare estrapolazioni improprie.

La seconda parte del lavoro esamina il programma evergetico tardoantico di Avianio Vindiciano, consularis Campaniae (377–400 d.C.), documentato da tre basi integre e da un testo perduto. Il reimpiego della base giulio‑claudia costituisce un caso emblematico di continuità monumentale e memoria civica, inserito nelle dinamiche di spolia e autorappresentazione del IV secolo.

Il risultato è un quadro coerente di quattro secoli di storia urbana, in cui epigrafia, società e topografia dialogano per ricostruire l’identità civica di Terracina tra età imperiale e tardoantica.

The church of San Fantin, located in the heart of the historic centre of Venice, has ancient origins, probably dating back to the early Middle Ages; however, its current configuration is the result of numerous transformations that have taken place over the centuries, starting with the reconstruction of the building from the ground up, which began in 1507.
This article focuses on the analysis of some ancient and medieval stone artefacts that have been reused in the modern church building. Specifically, Myriam Pilutti Namer investigates the phenomenon of reused materials in Venice, with particular attention to the types of ancient marble integrated into the decoration of the church, while Giulia A.B. Bordi examines a baptismal font and a holy water stoup (which could also have been used for administering baptism), preserved in the sacred hall but of uncertain origin.

Excavations conducted in 2017 and 2019 near Tel Shalem in northern Israel revealed the impressive remains of a Roman fort. The fort was constructed during the early 2nd century CE and functioned until its planned dismantling and abandonment in the mid-3rd century CE. According to a wealth of archaeological and epigraphical finds, during the last two phases of occupation the Alae VII Phrygum, an auxiliary unit of the Roman army, was stationed at the fort. Impressive remains of glass windowpane fragments were discovered inside the regimental shrine, within the principia, the headquarters complex of the fort. The windowpanes were set prior to its refurbishment during the third phase, in 199-200 CE, and were used until its abandonment. This article focuses on the overall analysis of the windowpane fragments, which constitute one of the earliest attestations of glass windowpanes in the Levant. Their secure dating and welldocumented context contribute to our understanding of the early production technique and use of such windowpanes in a military sacred context in the Southern Levant. The online supplement presents the conservation processes of the windowpane fragments.

The article presents some previously unpublished Roman statues from private collections, now owned by the Italian state. These include a statuette of a crouching Aphrodite, a beautiful bearded private portrait, a private portrait imitanting the image of Antoninus Pius, a statue of a deer being attacked by dogs, a small statue of Aesculapius, and a head of Venus.

El artículo presenta un fragmento inédito de diploma militar romano conservado en el Museo Nacional de Arte Romano de Mérida datado en el año 128 d.C. Se trata de la tabula I de un diploma expedido bajo el reinado de Adriano. La relevancia del documento reside en que constituye uno de los primeros testimonios epigráficos que pueden fecharse con precisión en los que se atribuye a Adriano el título de Pater Patriae, aceptado definitivamente por el emperador en ese mismo año. Por otra parte, el estudio del extrinsecus permite atribuir el diploma a un soldado
de la cohors I Ulpia Dacorum, unidad reclutada en época de Trajano y estacionada en el frente sirio. La posible identificación del prefecto Tiberio Claudio Maximino sugiere que el fragmento podría corresponder al primer licenciamiento conocido de esta cohorte, aportando nuevos datos para la historia administrativa y militar del Oriente romano.

This paper presents the methods and results of an analysis of the style and authorship of the metrical inscriptions of Alcuin of York (d. 804), one of the leading intellectual figures of the socalled Carolingian Renaissance and a central scholar at the court of Charlemagne. The analysis was conducted using two digital databases: PoetriaNova 2 and Corpus Corporum. The study builds upon the research of Hans-Dieter Burghardt, who, in his unpublished doctoral dissertation defended at the University of Heidelberg in 1960, undertook a pioneering attempt at authorship attribution for the corpus of poems ascribed to Alcuin, transmitted in the now-lost Saint-Bertin manuscript, which survives through André Duchesne's 1617 printed edition. First, the paper outlines the criteria adopted for assessing the authenticity of epigraphic texts, with particular emphasis on the identification of intratextual parallels. Second, it describes the methodological procedures used to query the texts-such as the types of searches conducted within the databases, the comparison between expected and observed results etc.-using the digital tool PoetriaNova 2. Third, it examines the use of the Corpus Corporum database in cases where attribution remains problematic on the basis of the previously discussed data and where Alcuin's authorship is more difficult to establish. The paper concludes with a brief assessment of those instances in which PoetriaNova 2 and Corpus Corporum prove decisive in determining authorship.