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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.