Tombstones

[S. Marcer]

Good morning to everybody,
I’m a new member of this community and I’m a Ph.D student in archaeology of Iron Age in the Northern Italy.

Recently, cataloging the Roman “stele” with a Celtic onomatology in the Gallia Cisalpina, I saw a tombstone of a militis cohortis III Britannorum named Catavignus son of Ivomagus, found in the province of Cuneo (Piedmont, Italy).

Ref.:
- CIL, V, 7717.
- Dessau, n. 2560.
- C. Cichorius, in RE, IV, 1.
- A. Ferrua, Inscriptiones Itliae, IX, f. 1 (Augusta Bagiennorum), Roma, 1948, n. 93, pp. 52-53.
- P. A. Holder, The auxilia from Augustus to Trajan (BAR, S 70), Oxford, 1980, p. 166.
- C. Franzoni, Habitus atque Habitudo militis. Monumenti funerari di militari nella cisalpina romana, Roma, 1987, p. 100, tav. XXII, 4.

The tombstone is dated at 69 AC, when, helping Vitellio, some auxiliares of the cohors III Brittannorum, usually in garrison in Retia, they were sent to Cisalpina (ref. Tacitus, Hist., 1 70).

The particularity of this tombstone is the contrast between the quality of the letters and the simple representation of the soldier (in the superior part).
Is not well preserved, but the soldier seems to wear a paenula, a gladius is held on his right side, and in the right hand he holds an object that seems a club.
The club seems uncommon, the only comparison that I have found in a tombstone is a late II cent. AC from Sparta (tombstone of M. Aurelios Alexys - R.Cowan, Imperial Roman Legionary AD 161-284, Osprey Warrior 72, Oxford, 2003, p. 27; Palagia & W. Coulson, Sculpture from Arcadia and Laconia, Oxford 1993, 237, fig. 1).
Initially I thought of a reuse of a more ancient image, and the club maybe a vitis
(badly made), but the text and the letters seem contemporary, no marks of reuse.

What do you think about the representation?
Any advice or bibliographical references will be very useful for a future publication.

I hope to uploading these tombstone photos in the right section, and not start a new topic.

Thanks for the your interest and I hope to contribute as well in the future ;-) .

Best

Stefano

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