Dura, the Parthian Victory, and Lucius Verus [ Stone. ]

 Inscription: id 335
Title
Dura, the Parthian Victory, and Lucius Verus
Description
Unknown
Typology
Honorific
Inscription category
GreekRoman
Language
Greek
Language of entry
English
Physical characteristics
An officer of Dura Europos honours Lucius Verus, the emperor who defeated the Parthians and returned Mesopotamia to Roman control.
Material(s)
Stone.
Measurements
Not given by the editor
Original location (text)
Entrance of a shrine at the Artemis complex in Dura Europos (Syria)
Actual location
Unknown
Centuries (range of dating)
2nd CE
Date CE / start of range
165
Publications
Cumont, Franz, “Rapport sur une nouvelle mission à Sâlihîyeh,” in: Comptes- rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 68 (1924), p. 27 [SEG 2.817].
Edition

The edition of the inscription is taken from Cumont, Franz, Rapport sur une nouvelle mission à Sâlihîyeh,” in: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 68 (1924), p. 27. Diacritical marks have been updated to comply with the Leiden conventions. 

 
Αὐτοκράτορα
 
Κα[ί]σαρα Λ. Αὐρή-
3
λιον Οὐῆρον
 
Σεβαστὸν Αὐ-
 
ρήλιος Ἡλιό-
6
δωρος ὁ ἐπι-
 
στάτης
English translation
The translation is my own.

To the emperor Caesar L(ucius) Aurelius Verus Augustus. Aurelius Heliodorus, the epistatês.
English translation credit

The translation is my own. 

 

 

Commentary

Dura Europos [https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/893990] lies on the banks of the river Euphrates, frontier between Mesopotamia and Syria. This elevated mound was said to have been founded by one of Alexander the Great’s successors, Nicanor, but was later controlled by the rulers of Parthia (see Cohen, The Hellenistic Settlements, p. 156-159). Hellenistic, Parthian, and Semitic heritages were therefore present in this melting pot of different cultures and extraordinarily well preserved site branded as “the Pompeii of the desert” (Rostovtzeff, Dura Europos and Welles, “The Population”).

The strategic crossroads played a key role in the Roman expansion in the Middle East. As an inscription relates, Roman soldiers occupied Dura Europos in the course of Trajan’s campaign against Parthia. This presence, however, was brief as the troops retreated after the accession of Hadrian who preferred a more conservative foreign policy from 117 CE. When Rome, led by the Antonine dynasty, returned to a more aggressive stance, Mesopotamian strongholds became important again and this short text carved on a round column illustrates this process.

In the year 162, Lucius Verus – adopted descendant of Antoninus Pius and brother of Marcus Aurelius – departed from the harbour of Brundisium with the intention of responding to the Parthian threat over Armenia. Imperial coinage announced the PROFECTIO AUGUSTI (“Departure of the Emperor”, RIC III, Marcus Aurelius 477-481, 1321-1323, 1356-1358), while the emperor crossed important provincial centres such as Athens and Ephesus. In Greece, he visited his tutor and benefactor Herodes Atticus (Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists II.1.11), and was initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries (IG II² 3592 (I.Eleusis 483), 3620 (I.Eleusis 503). Having arrived on the Asian continent, Ephesus is known to have hosted Lucius Verus on a further two occasions (I.Eph. 728, 3072), one of which was his wedding with Lucilla according to the Historia Augusta (Verus 7.7, cf. Marc. 9.4-6). Armenia soon returned to the control of Rome so the imperial army and commanders – most notably, Avidius Cassius – could continue the campaign towards the Euphrates. The Parthian king Vologases was defeated in 165 near Ctesiphon and immediately all the propagandistic media throughout the Empire announced the VICTORIA PARTHICA (RIC III, Marcus Aurelius 160-163, 533-534, 562-566, 571, 922, 929-936, 1436). Lucius Verus personally suggested to one of his former tutor and confidant, Fronto (Ad Verum Imp. II.3.), that these achievements (res gestae) “will seem as great as you want them to seem,” Lucian complained about the flocks of fraud historians magnifying the achievement (Quomodo Historia Conscribenda sit, see Jones, Culture and Society, p. 59-67), and the victory commemoration culminated with a triumphal celebration held in Rome in 166 CE.

The exact details of the campaign in Mesopotamia cannot be clearly elucidated since we are dependent on the biased reports provided by the Historia Augusta (see Strobel, “Zeitgeschichte” and Kemezis, “Lucian, Fronto”). This account presents a negative image of Lucius Verus that was replicated in modern historiography until scholars such as Lambrechts’s, “L’Empereur Lucius Verus” and Barnes’s, “Hadrian” tried to rehabilitate his role and rule. In order to support the more positive reception of Lucius Verus in the Middle East, Bowersock collected a significant number of epigraphic testimonies that show that the Roman victory was mainly attributed to this emperor by the provincial population. The inscription from Dura Europos belongs to this category as it was set up by a certain Aurelius Heliodorus who held the local position of ἐπιστάτης/epistatês. The text is brief and simply refers to the emperor in the accusative as is expected in the honorific inscriptions of the period (see Højte, Roman Imperial Statue, p. 19-25). As a personal initiative of Aurelius Heliodorus, nonetheless, one must be cautious of automatically interpreting that the entire community of Dura Europos found the Roman emperor praiseworthy from an early stage. Indeed, the nomenclature of the honouring individual seems to indicate that he had previously been granted Roman citizenship by Lucius (Aurelius) Verus himself. That said, it is certain that the inscription was later allowed to remain inside the sanctuary of Artemis, which was a major hub in the city (see Cumont, Fouilles, p. 169-216). At the same location, a statue base of Julia Domna was discovered during the modern excavations, so this religious centre remained connected to the imperial cult between the 2nd and the 3rd centuries (SEG7.332). This chronology is also supported by the discovery of a denarius of Lucius Verus and proves fundamental for the development of Dura Europos.

Unlike the aftermath of Trajan’s campaign, the Parthian victory of Lucius Verus was consolidated and Rome continued to rule over Mesopotamia until the Sassanid accession. Dura Europos flourished in this period as shown by multiple constructions from which splendid wall decorations still survive (see Perkins, The Art). One of such works was the Jewish synagogue, which blended with the artistic tradition of the city (see Bellinger, The Synagogue). Roman control also resulted in the permanent presence of troops and officials whose activities are known to us from an exceptional collection of papyri and parchments (see Welles, The Excavations). All this evidence illustrates the impact of a conquest that commenced with the honoured Lucius Verus and prevailed until 256 CE, the year in which Dura was eventually under siege, conquered, and destroyed by king Shapor (see Pollard, Soldiers, 44-58; Edwell, Between Rome and Persia, p. 115-148, Andrade, Syrian Identity, p. 211-241).

Thematic keywords
Dura EuroposLucius VerusRoman conquestsMesopotamiaRoman soldierslocal populationArtemislocal templeimperial cultRoman victory
Keywords (original language)
αὐτοκράτωρΚαῖσαρΑὐρήλιοςΟὐῆροςσεβαστόςἐπιστάτης
Bibliographic reference
Cumont, Franz 1924   Rapport sur une nouvelle mission à Sâlihîyeh, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 68, 17-31Cumont, Franz 1926   Fouilles de Doura-Europos (1922-1923), (Paris : P. Geuthner)Lambrechts, P. 1934   L’Empereur Lucius Verus. Essai de rehabilitation, L’Antiquité Classique 3, 173-201Rostovtzeff, Michael I. 1938   Dura Europos and its Art, (Oxford : Clarendon Press)Welles, Charles B. 1951   The Population of Roman Dura, Studies in Roman Economic and Social History in Honor of Allan Chester Johnson eds. P. R. Coleman-Norton (Princeton : Princeton University Press), 251-274Bellinger, Alfred R. et. al. 1956   The Synagogue. The Excavations at Dura-Europos Conducted by Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters: Final Report VIII, Part 1, (New Haven : Yale)Welles Chales B.,Fink, Robert O.,Gilliam, James F. 1959   The Excavations at Dura-Europos conducted by Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, Final Report V, Part I, The Parchments and Papyri, (New Haven : Yale University Press)Barnes, Timothy D. 1967   Hadrian and Lucius Verus, Journal of Roman Studies 57, 65-79Perkins, Ann Louise 1973   The Art of Dura-Europos, (Oxford : Clarendon Press)Jones, Christopher P. 1986   Culture and Society in Lucian, (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press)Strobel, Karl 1993  , Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt 2.34 (Berlin : De Gruyter), 1315-1360Pollard, Nigel 2000   Soldiers, Cities, and Civilians in Roman Syria, (Ann Arbor : The University of Michigan Press)Bowersock, Glen W. 2001   Lucius Verus in the Near East, Rome et ses provinces: Hommages à Jean Charles Balty eds. C. Evers,A. Tsingarida (Brussels : Livre Timperman), 73-77Højte, Jakob Munke 2005   Roman Imperial Statue Bases: from Augustus to Commodus, (Aarhus : Aarhus University Press)Cohen, Getzel M. 2006   The Hellenistic settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa, (Oxford : Oxford University Press)Edwell, Peter M. 2008   Between Rome and Persia: the middle Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Palmyra under Roman control, (London : Routledge)Kemezis, Adam M. 2010   Lucian, Fronto, and the Absence of Contemporary Historiography under the Antonines, American Journal of Philology 131.2, 285-325Andrade, Nathanael J. 2013   Syrian Identity in the Greco-Roman World, (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press)
Publication status
Yes
Realised by (term)
Aitor Blanco Pérez
Drupal Node ID
4165
Publishing diplomatic option
No
Publishing translation option
No
 
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