Painted Dedication to Genius and a Relief Depicting aquila from a Sanctuary in Sopianae (Appendix to the Study: Painted Depiction of Genius of Sopianae by Anita Kirchhof)

Fábián, Boglárka and Szabó, Ádám (2018) Painted Dedication to Genius and a Relief Depicting aquila from a Sanctuary in Sopianae (Appendix to the Study: Painted Depiction of Genius of Sopianae by Anita Kirchhof). ACTA ARCHAEOLOGICA ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARUM HUNGARICAE, 69 (1). pp. 131-141. ISSN 0001-5210 (print); 1588-2551 (online)

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Abstract

In the locality of Sopianae, Pannonia Inferior, at the east corner of the settlement, there was a presumably customs station built at the end of the 2nd century which existed till 258–260 AD. From one of the rooms of the building excavated on Kossuth Square, Pécs, a fresco depicting a Genius, an inscription belonging to it, two pedestals - probably bases for statues – and a statue of an eagle came to light. Based on the assemblage the room may have been the sanctuary (sacellum) of the official building. The rare but formal telonium or teloneum expression may have been used for this customs station which, as such, belonged to the organization of the Publicum portorium Illyrici. The only surviving inscription may have been dedicated to the genius of the employees or the armed guards of the customs station: Genio/cu(stodiarum?) tel(onei?). On the pedestal bases probably emperor statues were situated. On the eastern wall of the west–east oriented room, based on its own pedestal and generally because of its quality, there was the relief of an eagle placed in a niche personalizing Iuppiter and the imperial power. In this case the eagle can be taken as a state-imperial symbol found in its own context and thus belonged to the rare Roman Age relics of the administration. The sanctuary must basically serve the official imperial cult.

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