Thread by @DocCrom

#EpigraphyTuesday🧵– The Insus Tombstone

Discovered in 2005, this inscription and relief sculpture served as the tombstone for a Roman auxiliary cavalry soldier: ca. Late 1st Century AD. #Roman

Image: Lancaster City Museum. Link - lancashiremuseumsstories.wordpress.com/2021/02/12/the…

The piece is a fine example of the ‘Reiter’ (‘Rider’) style of monument, with a representation of a mounted soldier. Standing some 2.25m high, the overall piece is both impressive and energetic.

Inscription:

Dis
Manibus Insus Vodulli
[fil]ius cive(s) Trever eques alae Aug(ustae)
[ t(urma)] Ṿictoris curator Domitia [? h(eres) f(aciundum) c(uravit)]

Translation:

‘To the shades of the dead. Insus son of Vodullus, a citizen of the Treveri, trooper of the Cavalry Regiment Augusta, [squadron] of Victor, curator. Domitia [his heir had this set up].’

There are a number of interesting features in this inscription, not least the unusual full rendering of ‘Dis Manibus’, a feature which is generally Flavo-Trajanic, assisting with the dating of the stone.

Insus himself was a member of the Treveri, suggesting that he likely joined his regiment in the Rhineland before it was sent out to Britain.

The relief itself is perhaps a little crude, but it too has some idiosyncratic features, such as the short sword in place of the more usual cavalry lance. This is to perhaps emphasise the beheading of the fallen enemy: note that the rider also holds a severed head.

Notably in one of his letters, in a spot of legalese punnery, Cicero alludes to the Roman belief that the Treveri were head-hunters (Letters to Friends, 7.13.2). Similarly, Diodorus Siculus makes mention of the Gallic custom of head trophies (Library, 5.29.3-5).

For the RIB entry for this piece (3185), see:

romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/3…

For more on the Treveri, see:

Shotter, David. “Cicero and the Treveri: New Light on an Old Pun.” Greece & Rome 54, no. 1 (2007): 106–10.

jstor.org/stable/20204181

#EpigraphyTuesday #Roman 🧵