01-03-2010, 06:10 PM
Quote:The tomb of Quintus Sulpicius Celsus has some interesting reliefs, ...I am suspicious at the choice of iconography. As well as a corona muralis, our man seems to have been awarded a torques, which I believe was too minor an award for an equestrian. This makes me suspicious that our man was one of those primipilares who rose to equestrian status via the honorific post of praefectus fabrum.
If this is so, then he had perhaps been a Praetorian centurion, which would explain the Praetorian standard depicted on one side. If you have a better resolution of photo, you may even be able to identify the emperor whose face adorns the phalera there.
Again, I cannot locate a precise analogy (which probably has more to do with my limitations than with the available corpus of inscriptions! :?
[Ti(berio) C]laudio Drusi f(ilio) Caesari A[u]gusto G[ermanico pont(ifici) max(imo)] | [t]ribunic(ia) potest(ate) VIII imper(atori) [X]VI consu[li IIII p(atri) p(atriae)] | [-- G]litius T(iti) f(ilius) Stel(latina) Barbarus prim[ip]ilaris p[raef(ectus) coh(ortis) --] | [t]ribunus militum praef(ectus) fabr(um) T[i(beri) C]laudi Caes[aris Aug(usti) Germ(anici) ...
No decorations are mentioned, but you may like to note the career of L. Aemilius Paternus (ILS 2661), which is altogether more exciting, with its long sequence of centurionates (including that of trecenarius, which John Mann brilliantly elucidated as indicating those men who had served in three grades of centurionate, which in this case would be legionary, urban, and praetorian), culminating in an honorific praef. fabr.:
L(ucio) Aemilio | L(uci) fil(io) Gal(eria) | Paterno p(rimi)p(ilari) | praef(ecto) fabr(um) >(centurioni) leg(ionis) VII G(eminae) | >(centurioni) leg(ionis) I M(inerviae) >(centurioni) leg(ionis) VII Cl(audiae) | >(centurioni) leg(ionis) XIIII G(eminae) >(centurioni) coh(ortis) IIII u[r(banae)] | >(centurioni) coh(ortis) IIII pr(aetoriae) CCC(trecenario) >(centurioni) leg(ionis) II Au(gustae) | et p(rimo) p(ilo) ter donis donato | ab Imp(eratore) Traiano torqui|bus armillis phaleris | corona vallari bis | in Dacia semel in Par|thia | Atilia L(uci) fil(ia) Vera be|ne de se merito
It is not a precise analogy, as Aemilius Paternus ended his long and active career as a primipilaris, instead of proceeding to an equestrian career. But note that the appropriate decorations for such a man were the torques, armillae and phalerae along with his corona. Equestrians seem, on the other hand, to have received the hasta pura ("silver spear") and/or the vexillum along with their corona.
I think it is at least possible that Sulpicius Celsus is showing us that he earned "centurial" decorations prior to his equestrian career. I can't be sure, though.
P.S. Do we know how much of the inscription is lost at the bottom? It's difficult to tell from the photo. (Perhaps we are only in the middle of the text, and our man was going to tell us about his primipilate and decorations?)
