Arrius Alphius

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A copy of the petition ( libellus ) of the imperial freedman Arrius Alphius from the year 155 (CIL 06, 2120)

Arrius Alphius lived in the 2nd century and was a freedman ( libertus ) of Arria Fadilla , mother of Emperor Antoninus Pius . In 155, the man requested by an input ( libellus ) in the designated priesthood ( collegium pontificium ) for permission to the bones of his wife and his son from a Tonsarkophag, which served as a provisional arrangement, one in a finished marble sarcophagus in Mausoleum was set up on Via Flaminia to be allowed to move. Obtaining consent was necessary under current law , since the deceased had to be touched for the reburial.

He presented the petition to Decimus Velius Fidus , who was personally known to him and a pontiff of senatorial rank. He wrote a detailed cover letter in favor of Arrius Alphius and sent the document together with the submission to the responsible promagister of the pontifices, Publius Iuventius Celsus , with the request for approval. The request was granted and documented with a corresponding short note in the margin on the application ( subscriptio ).

In addition to posting the approved application in a public building - here probably in the vestibule ( porticus ) of the Temple of Apollo in Rome - Arrius Alphius had a copy of the successful petition made on a stone tablet, along with the accompanying letter from his advocate.

The plaque is classified as very important in modern research, as the inscription is a rarely available testimony to an enacted legal act ( decretum ) to an individual, which was granted by an authorized official of the imperial administration .

literature

  • Werner Eck : The Roman Office Holders and the Social Groups in the ImperiumOfficial Epistolography and the Language (s) of Power , ed. St. Procházka - L. Reinfandt - S. Tost, Vienna 2015, 185–199, here pp. 197, 198 ( PDF ).
  • Werner Eck: Roman grave inscriptions as a legal source, in: Hermeneutics of the source texts on Roman law , ed. M. Avenarius, Baden-Baden 2008, 67–93, here pp. 75, 76 ( PDF )

Remarks

  1. ↑ CIL 06, 2120
personal data
SURNAME Alphius, Arrius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Freedman of Arria Fadilla, mother of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century