Three Roman inscriptions from the western Herzegovina

Abstract

1. Roman stela from Karlovac near Čitluk On the locality Kućišta in Karlovac near Čitluk in the western Herzegovina, near the Bronze Age site Maršića gradina. Dr. Stjepan Krasić professor of Papal University "Angelicum“ in Rome has recently found and made known two fragments of a Roman stela with an inscription. Both fragments are quite damaged on the left side but not that much as not to be able to read the inscription. They are nearly of the same size: 0,51 m x 0,40 m x 0,20 m, with a groove (app. 4,5-5 cm) running near the right edge (T. I). The lettering is of the provincial type of scriptura capitalis rustica quadrata. The letters of the first line are 5 cm high, and the rest of the inscription is written with 4 cm letters. The only exception is the last letter in the second line of the lower fragment (S), which is 2 cm high. One to three letters are missing or are damaged on the left side; the same is true for the right side due to the groove that damaged some letters. A break in the central part of the stela also caused substantial damages; accordingly, at least two central lines of the inscription are presently missing. Ligatures (M, E, O, R in the second line, and V and E in the last line) occur in the second and the last row of the lower fragment. Damaged text in the middle of the stela bore the name of a commemorator's sister. It seems that her name was Iulia and that a conjunction et followed after it. Dr. Stjepan Krasić suggested the following reading of this stela:
DMS [GjEMINO IVVE[NI| [IjNFELICIS SIMO /MODO/ DEFVNCTO RO..A ?????????????????? [GjEMELLA SOROR ET ...TRIPIENTIS... ...OPOSVERV[N]T However, thorough investigation of this stela suggests that Dr. Stjepan Krasić made several oversights. Thus, I would like to propose the following reading:
D(is) M(anibus) s(acrum) Qemino Iuve[n}i [i ] nfelicissimo defuncto Ro[m]a .........VC fvel G) F fvel E) — AC [I]u[l]ia(?) e[t](?) [GJemella soro[r]es [frajtri pientissfim]- o posueru[n]t.
Therefore, about three persons were mentioned on these fragments: Geminus Iuvenus - the brother of at least two sisters, the latter of whom was named Gemella. It seems that stela mentions members of the Geminus family. This nomen gentile is more often found in the form Geminius. Members of this gens are known throughout the entire Roman Empire. During the Principate they occur also in Roman Dalmatia. The name Geminus can be found as cognomen in Scardona, Narona, Iader, Corinium, as well as in the region of Benkovac. However, the name Iuvenus, as opposed to the 

form Juvenalis, is not very common. A variant Iuvinus occurs in the Early Christian period in the region of Salona. It is interesting that name Gemella (the one that carried the latter of the sisters) appears more often in the male variant, although its female version is attested in Salona and around Sinj. The formula D(is) M(anibus) s(acrum) suggests that this monument should be dated in the turn of the first and the second centuries AD, or in the first half of the 2nd century at the latest. It seems that this stela originates either from the archaeological locality Crkvine in the Čitluk field excavated in 1959 by Marko Yego (T. II, 1), or from Maršića gradina in Karlovac near Čitluk, or even from Karlovac itself where traces of a Roman settlement were found.
2. The Building Inscription from Donji Brišnik near Tomislavgrad
In Donji Brišnik near Tomislavgrad in the northwestern Herzegovina, on May 14th 1998 several Roman graves were devastated and one Roman inscription (T. HI, 2) came to light in rather uncertain circumstances. The upper and the right edge of the monument's moulded frame, as well as the inscription field, were damaged on that occasion by the building machinery; fortunately, the text of the inscription suffered no harm. Now, the monument is kept in the Franciscan monastery in Tomislavgrad (= Županjac = Duvno). Dimensions of the monument are: 0,90 m x 0,57 m x 0,16 m. The letters, 5 cm high, display characteristics of the scriptura capitalis rustica quadrata, and their straight lines end with sharp serifs. In the first three lines of the inscription members of the same family (father, son and daughter) are named one after another. The last line contains the verb fecerunt. Punctuation marks separate names of persons as well as filiations from names. Ligature occurs only in the first row in the name Fortunatus (N and A are connected). The inscription undoubtedly stood on a public building near the branch of the Roman road Salona - Argentaria that passed near Donji Brišnik, heading to a considerable Roman settlement in Borčani at the foot of Lib, southeast of Duvanjsko polje. The inscription reads as follows (T. IV, 1):
P(ublius) Quintilius Fortunatus, P(ublius) Quintilius Valens f(ilius), [P(ublia)] Quinta f( ilia) [fecejrunt.
Members of the Quintilius gens appear here for the first time among the Delmate tribal association's territory. This nomen gentile was wide spread throughout the whole Italy as well as in some western provinces of the Roman Empire, and, during the Late Principate it occurs in Salona, the provincial capital of Dalmatia. This is the first public inscription of the Duvno region set up by private persons. Here are attested inscriptions of an unknown Roman emperor found at Crkvina in Tomislavgrad (= Županjac = Duvno), of the empress Furia Sabinia Tranquillina wife of Roman emperor Gordian III (238-244) found at Karaula in Tomislavgrad, and of emperor Domitian (91-96) found at Karlov Han in Prisoje in the Buško blato region. Members of the Quintilius gens did not come here, in the core of the Delmate land, by chance. It is very probable that they were either government officials or private entrepreneurs, in any case, the successful ones, what they emphasised by setting up the inscription on a building alongside the Roman road. Structure of the inscription, the verb fecerunt written without abbreviation, and the edifice the inscription was originally placed on, date the inscription between the last quarter of the first and the first half of the third century AD. 

3. Iuppiter's altar from Crvenice near Tomislavgrad Several Roman inscriptions were found by I. Bojanovski during protective excavations of the Early Christian basilica at the locality Crlcvine in Crvenice at the southeastern part of Duvanjsko polje. Unfortunately, he published only the Iuppiter's altar found at the bottom of the baptismal font (T. IV, 2). This monument, now considerably damaged at its upper part and at the first line of the inscription, is included by E. Imamovic in his doctoral thesis among other monuments of unidentified deities. Not mentioning finding circumstances, he proposed incorrect reading of the inscription. It is evident that Imamov id, due to damages on the altar that had occurred either during its extraction out of the baptismal font or during transportation to the Zemaljski muzej in Sarajevo (T. V, 1), did not recognise the monument previously published by I. Bojanovski. Bojanovski reads this altar's inscription as [I. o f m. t P, Ael(ius) Quin(tus) / v. s. 1. m., and a fairly similar transcription occurs in the collection of Roman inscriptions from the former Yugoslav territory: /[¡(ovi) o(plimo) rn(aximo)] I P. Ael(ius) Quin(tus) tv. s. 1. m. Nevertheless, Imamov id's reading is completely incorrect:
IVI ivi T AEL.QVIN T(itus) Ael(ius) Quin(arius) V.S.L.M v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito) Imamovid's reading IVI derives from the remnants of the lower parts - two lateral vertical lines and the V-shaped central part - of the letter M that is a component of the commonest votive formula on altars dedicated to Jupiter: IOM = I(ovi) O(ptimo) M(aximo). Moreover, Imamovic incorrectly reads the dedicator's name as T(itus) Ael{iux) Quin(arius), although Bojanovski had already read it as P(ublius) Ael(ius) Quin(lus). T’his P. Aelius Quintus was a respectable native of Dclmatian origin, who served as scriba publkus in municipium Delminensium, and whose name was previously attested on the inscription from Lib near Tomislavgrad (T. V, 2)