Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T12:25:59.042Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Aspects of Identity-Construction and Cultural Mimicry among Dalmatian Sailors in the Roman Navy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Danijel Dzino*
Affiliation:
The University of Adelaide, [email protected]

Extract

C. Ravonius Celer was a sailor of the Misene fleet from Dalmatia.

C. Ravonius Celer qui et Bato Scenobarbi (f.) from Naples (CIL 10.3618 = Dessau 2901):

D(IS) M(ANIBUS) / C(AIUS) RAVONIUS CELER QUI ET BATO SCE / NOBARBI NATION(E) DAL[M(ATA)] / MANIP(U)L(ARIS) EX (TRIREME) ISID[E MIL(ITAVIT) ANN(IS)] XI VIXIT [ANN(IS) …] / P(UBLIUS) AELIUS V[…] I VENER[(E)…]

This inscription from his tombstone provides important evidence about the process of construction of individual identities in the period of the early principate, for it reveals the parallel existence of Roman and indigenous identity in a funerary context, commemorating C. Ravonius Celer, who is also at the same time Bato, a son of Scenobarbus of the Dalmatian ‘nation’. This inscription records the two identities of C. Ravonius Celer/Bato, which were incorporated into his personality as an essential part of who he was, revealing both his private and public self.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank the Australasian Society for Classical Studies for their Early Career Award, which helped my research travel to Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, resulting in this article. [Ed. note: Dr Dzino is the second winner of this Award.] Earlier versions of this paper were read at the departmental seminar at the University of Adelaide and the “Roman Byways” conference at the University of Sydney (December 2007). I also want to thank Antichthon's anonymous readers for useful suggestions and productive criticism; Dr Alka Domić-Kunić from the Archaeological Division of the Croatian Academy of Humanities and Sciences (HAZU) in Zagreb for her immense help and encouragement; and Dr Barbara Sidwell for editing and support.

References

1 AE (1912) 184 Google Scholar; Moore, H., ‘Latin Inscriptions in the Harvard Collection of Classical Antiquities’, HSCP 20 (1909) no. 9 Google Scholar; Bodel, J., ‘Thirteen Latin Funerary Inscriptions at Harvard University’, AJA 96 (1992) no. 4 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The original provenance of the tombstone is unknown. Bodel (84) argues that the stone may have been originally set up either in the bay of Naples or in Rome, where it was probably purchased.

2 Starr, C.G., Roman Imperial Navy 31 BC - AD 324, 2nd edn (Cambridge 1960) 20 Google Scholar. All Dalmatian sailors’ inscriptions were originally placed either in the bay of Naples or in Rome with a single exception: Domić-Kunić, A., ‘Classis praetoria Misenatium: With Special Attention to Sailors from Dalmatia and Pannonia’ (title of English abstract), Vjesnik Arheološkog Muzeja u Zagrebu, series 3, 28-29 (1995/1996) 61–2Google Scholar.

3 Katičić, R., ‘Zur Frage der keltischen und pannonischen Namengebieten im römischen Dalmatien’, Annuaire Centre D’Etudes Balkaniques III. 1 (1965) 70–1Google Scholar; Dušanic, S., ‘A Military Diploma of A. D. 65’, Germania 56 (1978) 465 Google Scholar.

4 Saddington, D.B., Classes. The Evolution of the Roman Imperial Fleets’, in Erdkamp, P. (ed.) A Companion to the Roman Army (Maiden 2007) 216 Google Scholar. It was also the perception of the Greek orator Aristides: ‘Consequently, they [soldiers] actually became reluctant for the rest of their lives to say where they had come from originally’: Aristides, , Praise of Rome (Jebb) 218.34 Google Scholar.

5 Indigenous names: Rendić-Miočevič, D., Hin i Antički svijet: Ilirološke studije Povijest – arheologija – umjetnost – numizmatika – onomastika (The Illyrians and Ancient World. Studies in niyrology: History – Art – Numismatics – Onomastici), collected works (Split 1989) 639, 642, 660-2, 782–3Google Scholar; Dalmatian and Pannonian sailors: Domič-Kunič (n. 2) 39-72; epigraphy: Moore (n. 1)3-4; Bodel (n. 1 ) 82-4 (only the inscription commemorating Baebius Celer).

6 See Kubitschek, W., s.v. ‘SignumRE 2A (1923) 2448–52Google Scholar; Harrer, O.A., ‘Saul Who Also Is Called Paul’, HThR 33 (1940) 20–1Google Scholar, esp. n. 10 for older literature; also I. Kajanto, Super-nomina: A Study in Latin Epigraphy. Commentati ones Humanarum Litterarum 40.1 (Helsinki 1966), and Horsley, G.H.R., New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity, Vol. 1 (North Ryde NSW 1981) 8996 for different aspects and contexts of this epigraphic habitGoogle Scholar.

7 Signum in Dalmatia is relatively rare outside of the capital Salonae, but even when it exists there are no indigenous names: Rendič-Miočevié (n. 5) 662.

8 The miners: most recently Piso, I., ‘Gli Illiri AD Albumus Maior’, in Urso, G. (ed.), Dall' Adriatico al Danubio: L'Illirico nell'età graeca e romana, I Convegni della Fondazione Niccolò Canussio 3 (Pisa 2004) 271308 Google Scholar; see also Zaninovič, M., ‘Delmati e Pirusti e la loro presenza in Dacia’, Opuscula Archaeologica [Zagreb] 19 (1995) 111–5Google Scholar.

9 The literature is too extensive for this study to go into more detail; see the different social and anthropological aspects in: Smith, A.D., The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford 1986)Google Scholar; Vermeulen, H. and Govers, C. (eds), The Anthropology of Ethnicity: Beyond Ethnic Groups and Boundaries' (Amsterdam/Hague 1994)Google Scholar; Banks, M., Ethnicity: Anthropological Constructions (London/New York 1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jenkins, R., Rethinking Ethnicity: Arguments and Explorations (London 1997)Google Scholar.

10 Bakhtin, M.M., The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, (trans, and ed. by Holquist, M.) (Austin/London 1981)Google Scholar; cf. Ewing, K.P., ‘The Illusion of Wholeness: Culture, Self and the Experience of Inconsistency’, Ethos 18 (1990) 251–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bourdieu, P., Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge 1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; The Logic of Practice (Cambridge 1990)Google Scholar; Friese, H. (ed.), Identities: Time, Difference and Boundaries(London 2002)Google Scholar.

11 Hope, V.M., ‘Negotiating Identity and Status: The Gladiators of Roman Nîmes’, in Laurence, R. and Berry, J. (eds), Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire (London/New York 1998) 179–80Google Scholar; Inscription and Sculpture: The Construction of Identity in the Military Tombstones of Roman Mainz’, in Oliver, G.J. (ed.). The Epigraphy of Death: Studies in the History and Society of Greece and Rome (Liverpool 2000) 155–60Google Scholar; Remembering Rome: Memory, Funerary Monuments and Roman Soldier’, in Williams, H. (ed.) Archaeologies of Remembrance: Death and Memory in Past Societies (New York/London 2003) 125–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar (gladiators and soldiers), and Constructing Identity: The Roman Funerary Monuments of Aquileia, Mainz and Nimes, BAR-Int. Series 960 (Cambridge 2001).

12 Bhabha, H., The Location of Culture (New York 1994), the first quotation is from 131, the second from 86Google Scholar.

13 E.g. Hall, J., Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity (Cambridge/New York 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Helienicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture (Chicago 2002) (the Greeks)Google Scholar; Dench, E., Romulus Asylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alexander to the Age of Hadrian (Oxford 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Farney, G.D., Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic Competition in Republican Rome (Cambridge 2007) (the Romans)Google Scholar; Wells, P.S.: The Barbarians Speak: How the Conquered Peoples Shaped Roman Europe (Princeton 1999) (‘Barbarians’)Google Scholar. There are too many for all to be mentioned here.

14 Miles, R. (ed.), Constructing Identities in Late Antiquity (London 1997)Google Scholar; Goldhill, S. (ed.), Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire (Oxford 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Hope, Constructing Roman Identity: Funerary Monuments and Social Structure in the Roman WorldMortality 2 (1997) 103–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also id., ‘Inscription and Sculpture’ (n. 11) 178-81.

16 E.g. Mattingly, D.J., ‘Introduction: Dialogues of Power and Experience in the Roman Empire’, in Mattingly, (ed.), Dialogues in Roman Imperialism: Power, Discourse and Discrepant Experience in the Roman Empire, JRA Supp. 23, (Portsmouth RI 1997)Google Scholar; idem, ‘Being Roman: Expressing Identity in a Provincial Setting’, JRA 17 (2004) 525 Google Scholar.

17 E.g. Millett, M., The Romanization of Britain: An Essay in Archaeological Interpretation (Cambridge 1990) (passive)Google Scholar; Hanson, W.S., ‘Forces of Change and Methods of Control’, in Mattingly, , Dialogues (n. 16) 6780 Google Scholar; Whittaker, C.R., ‘Imperialism and Culture: The Roman Initiative’, in Mattingly, , Dialogues (n. 16) 143–65 (active)Google Scholar; Hingley, R., ‘Resistance and Domination: Social Change in Roman Britain’, in Mattingly, , Dialogues (n. 16) 81102 (resistance)Google Scholar; Woolf, G., ‘The Unity and Diversity of Romanisation,’ JRA 5 (1992) 349–52Google Scholar; id., Becoming Roman: The Origins of Provincial Civilisation in Gaul (Cambridge 1998)Google Scholar; Mattingly, , ‘Being Roman’ (n. 16)Google Scholar; Hingley, R., Globalizing Roman Culture: Unity, Diversity and Empire (London/New York 2005) (local responses and globalisation)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 E.g. Lee-Stecum, P., ‘Tot in uno corpore formae: Hybridity, Ethnicity and Vertumnus in Properties Book 4’, Ramus 34 (2005) 2246 (the Romans)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Webster, J.. ‘Creolizing the Roman Provinces’, AJA 105 (2001) 209–25 (Roman provincials)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Webster, J. and Cooper, N. (eds), Roman Imperialism: Post-Colonial Perspectives (Leicester 1996) (Roman imperialism)Google Scholar; Seesengood, R.P., ‘Hybridity and the Rhetoric of Endurance: Reading Paul's Athletic Metaphors in a Context of Postcolonial Self-construction’, The Bible and Critical Theory 1.3 (2005) 116 Google Scholar. DPI: 10:2104/bc050016 (New Testament Studies); Whitmarsh, T., Greek Literature and the Roman Empire (Oxford 2001 ) (the Greeks)Google Scholar.

19 MacMullen, R., “The Legion as Society’, Historia 33 (1984) 440–56Google Scholar; Haynes, I., ‘Introduction: Roman Army as a Community’, in Goldsworthy, A. and Haynes, I. (eds), The Roman Army as a Community, JRA Suppl. 34 (Portsmouth RI 1999) 911 Google Scholar; idem, Military Service and Cultural Identity in the auxilia’, in Goldsworthy and Haynes, 167, 173 Google Scholar; Speidel, M.P., “The Soldiers' Homes’, in Eck, W. and Wolff, H. (eds), Heer und Intergrationspolitik. Die römischen Militärdiplome ais historische Quelle (Cologne and Vienna 1986) 467–81Google Scholar.

20 Romanness of the legions: Alston, R., ‘The Ties that Bind: Soldiers and Societies’, in Goldsworthy and Haynes (n. 19) 175–95Google Scholar; Pollard, N., ‘The Roman Army as “Total Institution” in the Near East? Dura-Europos as a Case Study’, in Kennedy, D.L. (ed.), The Roman Army in the East, JRA Suppl. 18 (Ann Arbor 1996) 211–28Google Scholar; Brennan, P.M., ‘The Last of the Romans: Roman Identity and the Roman Army in the Late Roman Near East’, JMA 11 (1998) 191204 Google Scholar.

21 The Illyriciani as a constructed identity is indirectly suggested in: Wilkes, J.J., “The Roman Army as a Community in the Danube Lands: The Case of the Seventh Legion”, in Goldsworthy and Haynes (n. 19) 95104 Google Scholar; Brizzi, G., ‘Ancora su Illyriciani e “Soldatenkaiser”: qualche ulteriore proposta per una messa a fuoco del problema’, in Urso (n. 8) 319–42Google Scholar.

22 E.g. James, S., ‘The Community of the Soldiers: A Major Identity and Centre of Power in the Roman Empire’, in Baker, P., Forcey, C., Jundi, S., and Witcher, R. (eds), TRAC 98: Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (Oxford 1999) 1425, esp. 14-15Google Scholar; Gardner, A., “The Social Identities of Soldiers: Boundaries and Connections in the Later Roman World’, in Roth, R. and Keller, J. (eds), Roman by Integration: Dimensions of Group Identity in Material Culture and Text, JRA Suppl. 66 (Portsmouth RI 2007) 97102 Google Scholar.

23 BGU632, cf. 423.22-23 where he signs his new name; cf. Starr (n. 2) 84-5; Nixon, C.E.V., ‘Joining the Roman Navy’, Ancient History: Resources for Teachers 9.1 (1979) 14-15, 1920 Google Scholar.

24 Tac. Hist. 1.46 Google Scholar; cf. Domić-Kunić (n. 5) 45. For society in Misenum see Parma, A., ‘Classiari, veterani e società cittadina a Misenum’, Ostraka 3 (1994) 4359 Google Scholar.

25 Nixon (n. 23)17, 19.

26 E.g. CIL 10.3406 Google Scholar; 6.3165; 6.3377 = 2753; 6.3406 = 2682 + 2684; 6.3492 = 2731; 6.3622 = 2812.

27 Starr (n. 2) 75 T 1. Other estimates vary significantly, but Starr provides the highest estimate for Dalmatians and Pannonians in Misenum; Domić-Kunić (n. 2) 56 T 4; Zaninovič, M., Ilirsko pleme Delmati (Illyrian tribe of the Delmatae) [complete text of articles published in the 1960s] (Šibenik 2007) 236 n. 292Google Scholar.

28 Type IIBa: Rendič-Miočevič (n. 5) 639. For the classification of indigenous names from the region see Alföldy, G., Die Personennamen in der römischen Provinz Dalmatia (Heidelberg 1969) 15 f.Google Scholar; Wilkes, , “The Population of Roman Dalmatia’, ANRW II.6 (1977) 757–9Google Scholar.

29 Type IIBb: Rendić-Miočevié (n. 5) 642.

30 Starr (n. 5) 71-4, 97-8 n. 24; Mann, J.C., ‘The Development of Auxiliary and Fleet Diplomas’, Epigraphische Studien 9 (1972) 233–41Google Scholar; Reddé, M., Mare nostrum. Les infrastructures, le dispositif et l'histoire de la marine militaire sous l’empire romain, Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome 260 (Paris 1986) 474 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Saddington (n. 4) 212.

31 Domić-Kunić, , ‘Auxiliaries of Illyrian and Pannonian Origin from Inscriptions and Diplomas from Augustus to Caracalla’ (title of English abstract), Arheološki Radovi i Rasprave [Zagreb] 11 (1988) 104 T 1. In English: P.A. Holder, The Auxilia Irom Augustus to Trajan, BAR-Int. ser. 70 (Oxford 1980), 132 (with some omissions) for auxiliariesGoogle Scholar.

32 Braunert, H., ‘Omnium provinciarium populi Romani… fínes auxi. Ein Entwurf’, Chironl (1977) 215–6Google Scholar; Fitz, J., ‘La division de l'Illyricum’, Latomus 47.1 (1988) 1325 Google Scholar.

33 Šašel Kos, M., Appian and Dlyricum. Sitala 43 (Ljubljana 2005) 219–44Google Scholar: changing the conceptions and misconceptions of Illyricum. For the construction of Gaul see A Riggsby, .M., Caesar in Gaul and Rome: War in Words (Austin 2006)Google Scholar; Krebs, C.B., ‘Imaginary Geography in Caesar's Bellum Gallicum’, AJP 127 (2006) 111–36Google Scholar; Germany: O'Gorman, E., ‘No Place like Rome: Identity and Difference in the Germania of Tacitus’, Ramus 22 (1993) 135–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Britain: Stewart, P.C.N., ‘Inventing Britain: The Roman Creation and Adaptation of an Image’, Britannia 26 (1995) 110 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and in wider context Schadee, H., ‘Caesar's Construction of Northern Europe: Inquiry, Contact and Corruption in De Bello Gallico ’, CQ 58 (2008) 158–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Plin. HN 3.139–44Google Scholar; Wilkes, Dalmatia (London 1969) 153 f., 482–6Google Scholar; id. The Danubian and Balkan Provinces’, in CAH 102 (1996) 576–81Google Scholar; Bojanovski, I., Bosna i Hercegovina u antičko doba (Bosnia-Herzegovina in Antiquity) (Sarajevo 1988) 75344 Google Scholar.

35 Cf. the similar situation in Britain: Mattingly, Britannia: An Imperial Possession (London 2006) 358–9Google Scholar.

36 See Dench (n. 13) 38-92 on Roman ethnographic genre.

37 For the empire perspective see Ando, C., Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire (Berkeley/Los Angeles 2000) 353–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Keay, S., ‘Romanization and Hispaniae’, in Keay, S. and Terrenato, N. (eds), Italy and the West: Comparative Issues in Romanization (Oxford 2001) 131–2 (Hispania)Google Scholar; Mitchell, S., ‘Ethnicity, Acculturation and Empire in Roman and Late Roman Asia Minor’, in Mitchell, S. and Greatrex, G. (eds), Ethnicity and Culture in Late Antiquity (London 2000) 117–51 (Asia Minor)Google Scholar.

38 E.g. Syme, R., ‘Augustus and the South Slav Lands’, in Danubian Papers (Bucharest 1971) 1921 Google Scholar; Nagy, T., ‘Die Okkupation Pannoniens durch die Römer in der Zeit des Augustus’, AArchHung 43 (1991) 77–8Google Scholar; Čače, S., “The Name “Dalmatia” in the Second and First Centuries B.C.' (Title of the English abstract), Radovi Filozofskog Fakulteta [Zadar] 40 (2003) 2948 Google Scholar; Šašel Kos (n. 33) 377-8.

39 Cf. App. I11. 14; Šašel Kos (n. 33) 376-80.

40 Dzino, D., ‘Strabo and Imaginary Illyricum’, Athenaeum 98.1 (2008) 175 Google Scholar.

41 Wilkes (n. 34) 173-6; Alföldy, G. Bevölkerung und Gesellschaft der römischen Provinz Dalmatien (Budapest 1965) 5659 Google Scholar.

42 Woolf, , ‘The Uses of Forgetfulness in Roman Gaul’, in Gehrke, H.-J. and Möller, A. (eds), Vergangenheit und Lebens welt. Soziale Kommunikation, Traditionsbildung und historischer Bewußtsein. ScriptOralia 90 (Tübingen 1996) 361–81 (Gaul)Google Scholar; Roymans, N., Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power: The Batavians in the Early Roman Empire, Amsterdam Archaeological Studies 10 (Amsterdam 2004), esp. 221–34 (the Batavians)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Domić-Kunić (n. 31 ) 83-114.

44 C7L5.7893; 13.11962 = 7509, and Laguerre, G., Inscriptions Antiques de Nice-Cimiez (Paris 1975) no. 49 Google Scholar. It was standard epigraphic procedure with auxiliaries: Speidel (n. 19).

45 CIL 16.30; 16.31 Google Scholar; 3.3261; 3.8494.

46 Only the soldier from CIL 3.8494 Google Scholar states that he is natione Delmata. Curiously, his tombstone is found in Dalmatia in the military camp of Burnum.

47 Domić-Kunić, A., ‘ Classis Praetoria Ravennatium with Special Reflection on Sailors that Originate from Dalmatia and Pannonia’, ŽAnt 46 (1996) 95110 Google Scholar.

48 Domić-Kunić, (n. 2).

49 Starr (n. 2) 75 counts only one Ravennate and one Misene sailor for Dalmatia as pre-Flavian, as they received their diploma from Vespasian and obviously a major part of their service was in pre-Flavian times. Both of them stated their civitas identity and indigenous name.

50 Zaninovic (n. 27) 229-46.

51 In a military context: CIL 6.3261 Google Scholar, probably 6.3663, and in a civilian context 6.28053b. Also, there was a community of Dalmatians in Rome, ci ves Dalmates mentioned in 6.32588 = 2817.

52 See Wilkes (n. 35) 272-4; Bojanovski (n. 35) 266-303.

53 A. and Sasel, J., Inscriptiones Latinae quae in Iugoslavia inter annos MCMII et MCMLX repertae et editae sunt 2, Sitala 25 (Ljubljana 1986) no. 753Google Scholar and CIL 3.9810 Google Scholar. The same cognomen is found in CIL 3.2757 Google Scholar = 9817 and probably damaged CIL 3.3185 Google Scholar = 10151 (Dalmatia) and 36302 = 8162 (from Pannonia); see Rendič-Miočevié (n. 5) 658-9.

54 A. and J. Šašel (n. 53) no. 2956.

55 See Slofstra, J., ‘Batavians and Romans on the Lower Rhine. The Romanization of the Frontier’, Archaeological Dialogues 9 (2002) esp. 29 for situational identity of the Batavian élite as assuming the matrices of the ‘Germans’, Batavians, and RomansCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 See Adams, J.N., Romanitas and the Latin Language’, CQ 53 (2003) 199201 for Latin and Roman identity in the Roman armyCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Adams, , Bilingualism and the Latin Language (Cambridge 2003) passimCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Clackson, J. and Horrocks, G., The Blackwell History of Latin Language (Maiden MA/Oxford 2007) 232–64Google Scholar. Indigenous languages were used in the Roman army units; cf. Adams, 190, 236-7, 255-60, 276, 284.

58 Certainly, a fourth strategy is also possible – to assume a Roman name only and state no identity. Those sailors are virtually undetectable and cannot be taken into account in research like this. Unfortunately the evidence shows heavy bias towards those who wanted to state their separateness, cf. Noy, D., Foreigners at Rome: Citizens and Strangers (London 2000) 157–60Google Scholar.

59 The names Dalmata, Dalmatius, Dalmasius are very rare in Dalmatia too and occur in and around the capital, Salonae – probably a statement of civitas or narrow regional identity in the cosmopolitan surroundings of a large city: Zaninovic (n. 27) 46-7.

60 As Noy (n. 58) 159 points out: formation of new regional imperial identities in Rome might be more readily expressed in a diasporic context (Rome), rather than in the towns or villages of their origin.

61 Constructed in completely different circumstances as a different identity: Dzino, , ‘“Becoming Slav”, “Becoming Croat”: New Approaches in Research of Identities in Post-Roman Illyricum’, Hortus Artium Medievalium 14 (2008) 199200 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also with differences Fine, J.V.A. Jr., When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans: A Study of Identity in Pre-Nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods (Ann Arbor 2006) 94–5 and passimCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.