Caelius stone

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gravestone of Marcus Caelius, copy in the LVR-RömerMuseum Xanten

The Caeliusstein (also tombstone of Marcus Caelius ) is a Roman tombstone that was erected for the Roman officer Marcus Caelius, a centurion of the Legio XVIII . According to the information in the epitaph, he died in the War of Varus ( bello Variano ). The stone thus represents the only clear archaeological - epigraphic source for fighting in the Germania Magna in the year 9 AD. The stone was found in the early modern era in the Vetera military camp (near Xanten ) and According to current knowledge, it is the oldest Roman gravestone from Germany. It was established by the brother of the deceased.

Description of the tombstone

The tombstone of Marcus Caelius is rectangular in format and is now 1.27 m high, 1.08 m wide and 18 cm deep. However, the first drawings of the object, made in the years immediately after it was found, show that an unadorned shaft end still existed and the stone is therefore only around three quarters of its original height today. A narrow part of the preserved part of the stone has split off at the bottom left, while a piece on the right part has been reconstructed in modern times. The tombstone is divided into an upper, slightly larger part with a pictorial representation, and a lower, smaller part with the grave inscription.

Detail of the Caelius stone: Depiction of the Centurion Marcus Caelius

Field of view

The upper half is designed as an aedicule , so the decoration suggests the architectural components of a temple: a gable and pilasters on the right and left frame the central picture field. This shows a soldier as a half-length in his full uniform and all his military decorations : orden like phalerae on the breastplate, on the shoulders bracelets ( Armillae ), two neck rings ( torc ) and on the head of the civic crown (corona civica) as a special military ceremony. In his hand he holds the stick ( vitis ) , a staff made of grapevine, as a sign of his rank. The figure is supposed to represent the deceased, Marcus Caelius. He is flanked by his two freed slaves , whose portrait busts are placed on small plinths on the side. On these plinths there are two small inscriptions with the names of the two freedmen ("M (arcus) CAELIVS L (ibertus) PRIVATUS", i.e. "Marcus Caelius Privatus, freedman", and "M (arcus) CAELIVS M (arci) L ( ibertus) THIAMINVS ", also" Marcus Caelius Thiaminus, freedman of Marcus "). Presumably these two freedmen perished in the same battle as their former master.

After a stylistic analysis of the pictorial representations, Hans G. Frenz came to the conclusion that the sculptor of the tombstone came from the homeland of Marcus Caelius and his brother, namely from Bononia (today's Bologna ) and therefore probably copied specifically for the production of this representation Germania had been brought. He seems to have stayed there only for this commission and then left the region again, since no comparable works of art from the north-west provinces of the Roman Empire are known.

Detail of the Caelius stone: grave inscription

inscription

The lower, smaller part is the grave inscription, which is framed in the form of the so-called tabula ansata . The Latin text is:

M (arco) Caelio T (iti) f (ilio) Lem (onia tribu) Bon (onia)
[I] o (rdini) leg (ionis) XIIX ann (orum) LIII s (emissis)
[ce] cidit bello Variano ossa
[i] nferre licebit P (ublius) Caelius T (iti) f (ilius)
Lem (onia tribu) frater fecit

Translation of the Latin inscription:

For Marcus Caelius, son of Titus, from the tribe Lemonia, from Bononia, Centurion 1st order of the 18th Legion, (who) (was) 53 years and a half old. He fell in the War of the Varus. Bones may be laid here. Publius Caelius, son of Titus, of the tribe Lemonia, his brother, made (the tombstone).

By specifying the age of 53½ years, the year of birth of Marcus Caelius, based on his death in the Varus Battle in AD 9, can be traced back to around 45 BC. To date. Bononia, today's Bologna , is given as his place of origin .

The regulation that the mortal remains of the dead may be buried at the place of the monument can be found repeatedly in ancient inscriptions. It indicates that it is not a tombstone in the narrow sense, but a cenotaph (ie a "sham grave "). Presumably the dead man's bones could not be recovered after the Varus Battle, so that his brother had to build an empty grave for him. The meaning of the phrase “ossa inferre licebit” (“bones may be placed here”) is not finally clarified. There is a presumption that Publius Caelius was thinking of the case that the body of his brother could still be found on the battlefield and then buried next to the gravestone that had already been erected. An alternative thesis, on the other hand, assumes that the area around the inscription was released for the burial of any bones in order to protect them from desecration: Roman law provided that the place became a sacred ground as soon as there were burials , and was thus protected from overbuilding. The stone is often seen as archaeological evidence of the " Battle of the Teutoburg Forest " taking place, but in contemporary literature this is referred to as clades Variana (Battle of Varus), not as bellum as on the stone.

Find and research history

The tombstone of Marcus Caelius was found in 1620 on Fürstenberg between Xanten and today's district of Birten ; however, the exact circumstances of the find have not been handed down. It has been in the possession of the University of Bonn since 1820 and was given on permanent loan to the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn after it opened in 1893 . The stone can still be viewed there today and bears the inventory number U 82.

  • First representations of the Caelius stone in the early modern period

  • Soon after 1620, illustration in Codex Pighianus
    (Berlin State Library)

  • Before 1630, Chronicle of Johannes Turck
    (Main State Archive Düsseldorf)

  • 1721 in the 2nd edition of the Annales Cliviae by Werner Teschenmacher
    (Kleve City Archives)

  • 1643 in the manuscript Roma Traiana by Hermann Ewich
    (Berlin State Library)

literature

  • Max Siebourg : The monument to the Varus Battle. In: Bonner Jahrbücher . Volume 135, 1930, pp. 84-104.
  • Max Siebourg: Retrospective on the Caelius stone. In: Bonner Jahrbücher. Volume 136/137, 1932, pp. 271 f.
  • Harald von Petrikovits : On CIL XIII 8648 from Vetera (Caeliusstein). In: Bonner Jahrbücher. Volume 151, 1951, pp. 116-118 with plate 8.
  • Ernst Bickel : The monument to the Varus Battle in Bonn. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie . New series, Volume 95, 1952, pp. 97-135 ([www.rhm.uni-koeln.de/095/Bickel.pdf PDF]).
  • Gerhard Bauchhenß : Bonn and the surrounding area: Military grave monuments (= Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani . Volume III, 1). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1978, pp. 18-22, no. 1.
  • Rainer Wiegels : The Caelius tombstone as evidence of early modern enthusiasm for antiquity . In: ders. (Ed.): Antiquity rediscovered: Reception of antiquity in the 18th century in Northern Germany with special consideration of the Osnabrück region. Interdisciplinary colloquium at the University of Osnabrück from 16.-18. February 2000 . Bibliopolis, Möhnesee 2002, ISBN 3-933925-25-8 , pp. 35-70.
  • Hans-Joachim Schalles , Susanne Willer (eds.): Marcus Caelius. Death in the Varus Battle . Landschaftsverband Rheinland / Rheinisches Landesmuseum and Primus Verlag, Xanten / Bonn / Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-89678-808-5 , (= catalogs of the LVR-Römermuseum in the Archaeological Park Xanten , 3; = catalogs of the LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn , 11 )

Web links

Commons : Marcus Caelius  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marcus Reuter : Favor for Rome. Tombstones of Roman soldiers. In: Hans-Joachim Schalles , Susanne Willer (ed.): Marcus Caelius. Death in the Varus Battle . Landschaftsverband Rheinland / Rheinisches Landesmuseum and Primus Verlag, Xanten / Bonn / Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-89678-808-5 , pp. 49–53, here p. 49.
  2. ^ Hans G. Frenz: Art landscapes. Origin and workshop. In: Hans-Joachim Schalles, Susanne Willer (ed.): Marcus Caelius. Death in the Varus Battle . Landschaftsverband Rheinland / Rheinisches Landesmuseum and Primus Verlag, Xanten / Bonn / Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-89678-808-5 , pp. 86–92.
  3. ↑ CIL XIII, 8648 .
  4. ↑ Jennifer Komp: Empty graves. The cenotaph. In: Hans-Joachim Schalles, Susanne Willer (ed.): Marcus Caelius. Death in the Varus Battle . Landschaftsverband Rheinland / Rheinisches Landesmuseum and Primus Verlag, Xanten / Bonn / Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-89678-808-5 , pp. 38–43.
  5. ↑ Ulrike Theisen: Profile. The tombstone of Marcus Caelius. In: Hans-Joachim Schalles, Susanne Willer (ed.): Marcus Caelius. Death in the Varus Battle . Landschaftsverband Rheinland / Rheinisches Landesmuseum and Primus Verlag, Xanten / Bonn / Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-89678-808-5 , pp. 8-10, here p. 9.