Tentheos

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Tentheos
Alternative name Tentheos
limes Limes Tripolitanus
(back line)
section Limes Tentheitanus
Type Cohort fort?
unit Cohors I Syrorum sagittariorum ?
Construction Stone?
State of preservation Location and size unknown, perhaps at Edref near Sintan
place Edref / az-Zintan ?
Template: Infobox Limeskastell / Maintenance / Untraceable
Previous Auru
(rear Limes line) (northeast)
Subsequently Tillibari Fort
(rear Limes line) (west)
Upstream Gasr Duib Centenarium (southeast)
Tentheos in the network of the Limes Tripolitanus

Tentheos is the traditional ancient name of a Roman town and a yet undiscovered cohorts sforza castle , which in the vicinity of the village Edref, near the town Sintan in northwestern Libya is situates. Edref is located in Jabal Nafusa , a layered mountain country in the hinterland of Tripolitania . This mountainous region separates the Djeffara plain with its agriculturally usable areas , which extends north to the Mediterranean , from the Sahara desert and the stony plateau of the Hammada al-Hamra . To date, there is no archaeological evidence that could contribute to the exact location or history of the location of Tentheos. The crew stationed in Tentheos was responsible as border protection section command for security and surveillance tasks on a section of the Limes Tripolitanus , the Limes Tenthettani .

Assumed location

The garrison town of Tentheos was on the Nafusa mountain range in the hinterland of the Limes Tripolitanus near the border. Near the presumed fort site, the land slopes south towards the Fezzan . In Sintan the largest and most important starts dry valley of Tripoli, Wadi Sofeggin that forms an extensive river system along the south and southeast side of the Nafusa- and Garian mountain range with its many tributaries. The wadi extends to the Djeffara plain and to Misrata. Tentheos, an important road crossing point, was connected to the north to the important seaport of Colonia Oea ( Tripoli ). East to the rear, also in was Nafusa Mountains located Auru (Ain el-Auenia). To the northwest, the Limes Road led along the Sofeggin Wadis via two small forts ( Centenarium Gasr Duib , Small Fort Gasr Wames ) to the Mizda border fort . A rear border road led to the west along the northern foot of the Nafusa Mountains to the Tillibari Fort . The area between Tentheos and Tillibari, the borderland between Libya and Tunisia , has not been adequately explored because of the tensions that flare up between the two countries.

Surname

The names Tentheos and Limes Tripolitanus - as the southern border of the Roman Empire - are mentioned in the 3rd century AD through the Itinerarium Antonini , a Roman imperial street directory. According to this directory, the term Limes Tripolitanus referred to a road that stretched from the coastal town of Tacape ( Gabès ) in the west to Lepcis Magna (al-Khums) to the east . At the garrison town of Bezereos , the route reached the immediate border area and then ran back to the Mediterranean coast on the heights of the Nafusa and Garian mountain ranges via the military sites of Tentheos and Thenadassa (Ain Wif).

As reported by the Notitia dignitatum , a late Roman state manual , this section of the Limes still existed administratively in the late 4th and perhaps even in the early 5th century AD.

research

Building inscription of the Gasr Duib after Goodchild and Ward-Perkins

An important archaeological testimony, the building inscription of the nearest centenarium Gasr Duib, discovered in 1948, is often taken as an indication of the structure of the border protection in the region and could point to the troops stationed in the fort of Tentheos. The name of the local border section, Limes Tentheitanus , is derived from the place name Tentheos. To this day, the original resolution of the text, as it presented itself to the archaeologists Richard Goodchild (1918–1968) and John Ward-Perkins (1912–1981), is under discussion. The names of the Caesars on the inscription were sacrificed and erased after their death in the course of a Damnatio memoriae , a condemnation of their memory:

Imp (erator) Caes (ar) 〚[M (arcus) Iulius Ph] ilippus〛Invictu [s Aug (ustus)]
〚et M (arcus) Iul (ius) P [hilippus〛Ca] es (ar) n (obilissimus ) regionem limi [tis Ten] -
theitani partitam et e [ius] viam incursionib (us) Barba [ro] -
rum constituto novo centenario〚 ...〛
..A..S prae [cl] useru [nt] Cominio Cassiano leg (ato) Augg (ustorum)
pr (o) pr (aetore) Gallican [o ...] v (iro) e (gregio) praep (osito) limitis cura
Numisii Maximi domo [..] SIA trib (uni)

The reproduction follows the Leiden bracketing system ; Translation: “The emperor Caesar Markus Julius Philippus, the undefeated Augustus and (his son) Markus Julius Philippus, the noblest Caesar, saved the area, the border region of Tentheitanus and its road, from the barbarian invasions by building the new centenary. ..S..A..S (?). [On the orders of Marcus Aurelius] Cominius Cassianus, governor of the emperor, senator and Gallicano ..., [the outstanding man], border commander, under the supervision of Numisius Maximus, whose hometown is ... SIA, tribune. "

Building inscription of Gasr Duib after Di Vita-Évrard

In 1991, the archaeologist Ginette Di Vita-Évrard presented another reading of the inscription:

Imp (erator) Caes (ar) 〚[M (arcus) Iulius Ph] ilippus〛Invictu [s Aug (ustus)]
〚et M (arcus) Iul (ius) P [hilippus〛Ca] es (ar) n (obilissimus ) regionem limi [tis Ten] -
theitani partitam et finitam (?) viam incursionib (us) Barba [ro] -
rum constituto novo centenario〚 ...〛
S..A..S (?) prae [cl] useru [ nt] Cominio Cassiano leg (ato) Augg (ustorum)
pr (o) pr (aetore) c (larissimo v (iro) Lic (inio) An [...] v (iro) e (gregio) praep (osito) limitis cura
Numisii Maximi domo [..] i [..] SIA trib (uni)

Translation: “The emperor Caesar Markus Julius Philippus , the undefeated Augustus and [his son] Markus Julius Philippus , the most noble Caesar, have the Limes Tentheitanus , which is part of the region, and the end (?) Of the road before the barbarian invasions with the new construction of the Centenarium ... S..A..S (?) closed. [On the orders of Marcus Aurelius] Cominius Cassianus, governor of the emperor, senator and Licinius An ..., [the outstanding man], border guard commander, under the supervision of Numisius Maximus, whose hometown is ... SIA, tribune. "

Di Vita-Évrard translated the section regionem limitis Tentheitani partitam by proceeding with regio partita according to the rules of ab Urbe condita (since the founding of the city). This is how she came up with the translation of “divide the region into parts”. For them, this translation was synonymous with “part of the region”. For further understanding, Hackett made it clear that the unspecified regio encompassed a larger topographical area than the Limes Tentheitanus did. This was only part of the regio . It seems obvious that an organizational reform of the Tripolitan border guards took place around the reign of Emperor Philip Arabs (244–249). The structure of the border sections and the border protection departments has become more differentiated. Regionally responsible Praepositi limitis were now responsible for the surveillance of the African Limes. They had their staff positions in the larger rear cohort forts.

At the time the centenarium was built, around 246 AD, the military tribune Numisius Maximus , who was probably stationed in Thenteos, was in command of the section over the Limes Tentheitanus . The division of the Limes Tripolitanus into smaller units like the Limes Tentheitanus seems to have originated at that time. This is also indicated by a building inscription from the Gholaia fort further south-east, dating from a little later .

Building inscription of the Gasr Duib with additions by Mattingly

The last line of the building inscription doesn’t end at the right edge of the stone tablet, but, left-aligned, in the last third. The archaeologist David Mattingly has therefore wondered whether a part of the inscription could be missing here, especially since the last word, trib (uni) , was placed so suddenly at the end of the inscription. He therefore added the following to the last line:

Numisii Maximi domo [..] i [..] SIA trib (uni cohortis I Syrorum sagittariorum)

Translation: "Numisius Maximus, whose hometown is ... SIA, Tribune of the First Cohort of Syrian Archers."

Mattingly could only speculate as to why the ancient stonemason did not complete the inscription. There would have been room for eight or more letters. Perhaps, however, he lacked the space for the content that still had to be accommodated and so the letters could only have been painted on very closely with color. Mattingly chose the Cohors I Syrorum sagittariorum (first cohort of Syrian archers) for the addition because he had succeeded in identifying Numisius Maximus as the commander of this unit. The name of the Cohors I Syrorum sagittariorum is also passed down through an inscription from the presumed vexillation fort Auru, which is closest to Tentheos .

literature

  • David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania . University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0-472-10658-9 , p. 97; E-book with identical content: ISBN 0-203-48101-1 ; the number of pages in the e-book is different for technical reasons.
  • David J. Mattingly: The constructor of Gasr Duib, Numisius Maximus, Tri (unus cohortis I Syrorum sagittariorum) . In: Antiquités africaines , 27 (1991), pp. 75-82.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Olwen Hackett , David John Smith : Ghirza. A Libyan settlement in the Roman period. Department of Antiquities, Tripoli 1984, p. 33.
  2. ↑ centenarium Gasr Duib at 31 ° 39 '8.6 "  N , 12 ° 28' 3.4"  O .
  3. ↑ fortlet Gasr Wames at 31 ° 38 '25.8 "  N , 12 ° 40' 41.46"  O .
  4. ↑ Kastell Mizda at about 31 ° 26 '41.76 "  N , 12 ° 58' 48.71"  O .
  5. ↑ Kastell Tillibari at 32 ° 18 '50.1 "  N , 10 ° 23' 52.8"  O .
  6. ↑ Michael Mackensen: The border in North Africa using the example of the provinces Africa Proconsularis and Numidia In: Borders of the Roman Empire. von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 3-8053-3429-X , pp. 62-71; here: p. 65.
  7. ↑ Itinerarium Antonini 73-77
  8. ^ Itinerarium Antonini 74, 5; Fortlet Bezereos at 33 ° 30 '13.33 "  N , 9 ° 29' 52.96"  O .
  9. ↑ Florian Schimmer : New evidence for a Roman fort and 'vicus' at Mizda (Tripolitania) . In: Libyan Studies 43, 2012, pp. 33–39, here: p. 33.
  10. ^ Richard Goodchild: Libyan studies. Select papers of the late . London 1976, ISBN 0236176803 , p. 28; the Notitia dignitatum calls this Limes section Limes Tentheitanus or Limes Tenthettanus .
  11. ↑ Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania: IRT 880 (with photos and drawings) , accessed on February 4, 2015.
  12. ↑ The full name of Cominius Cassianus can be found in an inscription on the Gholaia fort: AE 1972, 00678 .
  13. ↑ AE 1991, 1621 . The resolution of the inscription, first published in 1949 in L'Année épigraphique , differs somewhat from the variant presented here; Ginette Di Vita-Évrard: Gasr Duib. Construit ou reconstruit sous les Philippes? In: L'armée et les affaires militaires. (=  113e congrès national des sociétés savantes, Strasbourg, 1988 ), CTHS, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-7355-0214-7 , pp. 427-444.
  14. ^ Christian Körner: Philippus Arabs. A soldier emperor in the tradition of the Antonine-Severan principate . de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 2002, ISBN 3-11-017205-4 , p. 244.
  15. ^ Ginette Di Vita-Évrard: Regio tripolitana. A reappraisal . In: David J. Mattingly DJ Buck (Ed.): Town and Country in Roman Tripolitania. Papers in Honor of Olwen Hackett. (=  Society for Libyan Studies occasional papers 2), BAR, Oxford 1985, ISBN 0-86054-350-1 , pp. 143-163; here: p. 151.
  16. ^ Christian Witschel: On the situation in Roman Africa during the 3rd century . In: Klaus-Peter Johne, Thomas Gerhardt, Udo Hartmann (eds.): Deleto paene imperio Romano. Transformation processes of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century and their reception in modern times . Steiner, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-515-08941-1 , pp. 145-22; here: p. 181.
  17. ^ David J. Mattingly: The constructor of Gasr Duib, Numisius Maximus, Tri (unus cohortis I Syrorum sagittariorum) . In: Antiquités africaines , 27 (1991), pp. 75-82; here: p. 79
  18. ^ Christian Witschel : Crisis, Recession, Stagnation? The western part of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. Chr . (=  Frankfurt ancient historical contributions . 4) Marthe Clauss, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-934040-01-2 , p. 194; AE 1993, 01709 .
  19. ^ David J. Mattingly: The constructor of Gasr Duib, Numisius Maximus, Tri (unus cohortis I Syrorum sagittariorum) . In: Antiquités africaines , 27 (1991), pp. 75-82; here: p. 80
  20. ^ David J. Mattingly: The constructor of Gasr Duib, Numisius Maximus, Tri (unus cohortis I Syrorum sagittariorum) . In: Antiquités africaines , 27 (1991), pp. 75-82; here: p. 81
  21. ↑ John Spaul: Cohors2. The evidence for and a short history of the auxiliary infantry units of the Imperial Roman Army. BAR, Oxford 2000, ISBN 1-84171-046-6 , p. 416.
  22. ↑ AE 1992, 01761 .