Matronae Axsinginehae

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Cologne - Matron Altar - CIL XIII 8216.jpg

The Axsinginehae are matrons that have only been passed down from Cologne by a matron stone .

Finding and describing

The stone was found in 1829 during foundation work in the sole area of ​​the entrance of a Roman city wall tower. In the area around Kupfergasse, the Apellhof and the castle wall of Cologne city center, numerous finds of votive and matron stones were made in the 1820s. It shows the three matrons in a usual niche formed with a shell cover, framed on both sides by pilasters with leaf capitals. A temple gable is executed above the niche, which is decorated with two volutes and two fruits. A badly preserved temple servant in a tunic is attached to the narrow sides of the aedicule , one holding a jug, the other a beaker. The matrons are dressed in ankle-length robes sitting on a bench and each holding a fruit basket in their lap. The two exteriors still show the usual hoods. The state of preservation is badly damaged. The inscription field is attached below the niche. The stone is now in the exhibition of the Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne.

inscription

The inscription in Capitalis is clearly legible in five lines.

"Matronis / Axsinginehis / M (arcus) Catullinius / Paternus / v (otum) s (olvit) l (ibens) m (erito)"

"Marcus Catullinius Paternus honored his vows gladly and gratefully for the Axsingineh matrons."

The nickname of the founder "Paternus" appears frequently in the inscription catalog of the Lower Rhine and identifies the bearer as a Germanic from the Ubier tribe . The gentile name from the form "Catullus", as pseudo-gentileism, shows that his family had had Roman citizenship for two or more generations. The high-quality decorative finish of the stone also testifies to the wealth and social status of Paternus, whom he represented so representative.

nickname

Axsinginehae is a Germanic name with a common matron name ending ( -ehae ), which shows the root word germ. Neuter * aχ (a) s- "ear" and can be compared to the documents Gothic ahs and Old High German ahir . According to Günter Neumann, it can be derived from a place name * Ahsingi- . The suffix - ingi often occurs in old Germanic place names such as in Old Saxon "Gutingi" for today's Göttingen or the Aspingi = "Espenhain" from the year 852, in numerous documents in Upper German-Bavarian regions such as Elsing 's from the term " Alder “is derived. The matrons are named after a topographical characteristic of the place * Asingi , which was characterized by fertile grain fields. The etymology of the epithet identifies the matrons with a protective function for the fertility of the local grain fields.

See also

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ CIL 13, 8181 , CIL 13, 8187 , CIL 13, 8189 , CIL 13, 8211 , CIL 13, 8215
  2. ↑ CIL 13, 8216
  3. ↑ Comparison: CIL 13, 7976 , CIL 13, 7980
  4. ↑ Leo Weisgerber : The names of the Ubier. Westdeutscher Verlag, Cologne / Opladen 1968, pp. 132, 134, 136.
  5. ^ Günter Neumann: Germanic goddesses in Latin texts. In: Astrid van Nahl et al. (Hrsg.): Name studies on Old Germanic (= Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde - supplementary volumes . Volume 59). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2008, p. 230 ( Germanische Altertumskunde online for a fee at de Gruyter).
  6. ↑ Anders Hultgård : Local Deities. In: Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Volume 18, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, p 577 ( charge Germanic archeology online by de Gruyter).