Imperial building inscription for the Baths of Trajan
created: Transcription (Reynolds).
source date: CE 98-99
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he
availability: Creative Commons licence Attribution UK 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/) All reuse or distribution of this work must contain somewhere a link back to the URL http://inslib.kcl.ac.uk/

Bibliography

First block only, [...], 4 p.164, fig. 26; complete: [...], 1, 95f., Fig. 3, whence [...] 1960.198 whence [...] 018877; [...], 54, fig. 50, whence listed [...], 1964.562. Discussed by [...], 401; [...], 103; A. Garzetti, Nerva (Roma, 1950) 140f, 95; [...] 63f..

Imperator Caesar Nerva diui filius Traianus Augustus Germanicus pontifex maximus tribunicia potestate pater patriae consul II balineum et thermas fecit per Caium Memmium [...]

Translations

Emperor Caesar Nerva, son of the deified, Trajan [Augustus, victor in Germany, high priest pontifex maximus], with tribunician power, Father of the Country, consul for the second time, made the bath-building and hot baths through Caius Memmius [ . . .

Commentary

Line 1: Between Trajan's accession on the 25th Jan. 98 and the opening of his third consulate on 1st Jan. 100; in the absence of a figure for his tribunician power and the slightly unusual layout of his name, the text recalls ILS 280 recording work on the Via Appia begun by an earlier emperor, Nerva, or even Domitian.

Line 2: A bath building and hot baths: The gift of so typically Roman an institution, and the Latin used in the inscription, seem to indicate that the imperial government at this time wished to give to Cyrene not simply material help but also a stimulus to Romanisation, cf. Inscr. Cret. II. vi.2 (PHI 199823) recording a similar gift in the same province at almost, perhaps exactly, the same date.

Line 3: G. Memmius . . . .: PIR2, M 454; probably the proconsul. He is not otherwise known, but possibly his name should be restored in Inscr. Cret., cited above, where Guarducci proposed L. Elufrius Severus. The only other senatorial Memmius known under Trajan is Senecio Memmius Afer cos. suff. 99, PIR2 M 457; this man may belong to the same family.