L'Africa romana - UnissResearch - Università degli Studi di Sassari

Michael Speidel
The Cereus of Tamuda
A few years ago, a large, moulded granite slab (100 x 50 x 21 cm)
with a long inscription was found at Tamuda near Tetuan in northern
Marocco. Since the text is of some interest for the history of the Roman
army in Mauretania Tingitana, it was carefully published with photographs
and a fine commentary by A. Mastino l • A decisive word in the
middle of line 18, however, needs to be read differently. The following
text may therefore be suggested 2 :
l(ovi) O(ptimo) M(aximo).
Pro salute et incolumi-
, tate ddd(ominorum) nnn(ostrorum) L(uci) Septimi
Severi Pii Pertinacis Aug(usti) (et)
5 M(arci) Aure/(Ii) Antonini
Aug(usti) [[[et P(ubli) Septimi]JJ
ll[Getae Aug(usti) et ]JJ
Iuli[ae] matri(s) Augull[storum]]]
et cas-
IO trorum totiusque
domus divinae,
procurante
ll[---JJ]
[p]rocur(atore) eorum,
l A. MASTINO, Un decurione del/'ala III Asturum, praepositus castelli Tamudensis,
in una nuova dedica a Giove nel dies natalis di Settimio Severo, «Mélanges de l'École Française
de Rome», 102, 1990, 247-270; ID., Il castellum Tamudense in età severiana (riassunto),
«Antiquités Africaines», XXVII, 1991, pp. 119-121. For Tamuda see now M. LE­
NOIR, Le camp de Tamuda et la chronologie de quelques camps du Maroc, 113e Congrès
national des Sociétés savantes, Strasbourg 1988, IVe Colloque sur l'histoire et l'archéologie
de l'Afrique du Nord, voI. II, 355-365. I would like to thank M. Lenoir for valuable
comments on an earlier version of this note.
2 Some minor changes made here include letters put in square brackts by the editor
but visible on the photograph: Hne 3 L; line 4 R; line 19 IDV; line 21 S. Letter apparently
not preserved: Hne 14 P. The name of the decurion in Hne 14 was perhaps the otherwise
unknown Macasatius.