Fragmentary prayer for the safety of the Emperor
created: Transcription (Reynolds).
source date: 161-180 CE
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

[...], 2.b and pl. Xb

Iupiter optime maxime si respublica populi Romani Quiritium imperium Romanum exercitus socii nationes quae sub dicione populi Romani Quiritium sunt incolumes erunt ante diem III nonas Ianuarias quae proximae populo Romano Quiritibus reipublicae populi Romani Quiritium erunt fuerint et Imperatorem Caesarem Marcum Aurelium Antoninum Augustum Armeniacum [...]seruaueris [...]

Translation

[Most good and mighty Jupiter, if the republic of the Roman People of the Quirites, and the Roman Empire and army and the allied nations which are under the sway of the Roman people of the Quirites are safe, before the] third of [January which next falls to the] Roman people [of the Quirites, and the republic of the] Roman People of the Quirites [and if you preserve] the Emperor Caesar [Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus victor in A]rm[enia . . .

Commentary

From a formula for prayer of a type offered, on the third of January every year, by the Arval Brothers for the safety of the Emperor, for which see Henzen, Acta fratrum Arvalium, p.100, available at Hathi Trust; see also P.204, P.339, and, at Cyrene, C.146. The opening lines must give the date to which the gods are asked to preserve him. The emperor's name follows and from the surviving elements of his title must be Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Marcus, Commodus or – to remain within the likely time-limits – Caracalla. Of these Marcus is the most probable because it is only in his reign that the attested formula gives the emperor's name after the date.