Publishing a Festschrift is a customary way to honour eminent scholars on occasions such as retirement or, sadly, when they pass away. Professor Mirković left us in 2020, and her colleagues, collaborators and former students edited this collection of articles as an homage to her vast scholarly opus. In the case of this particular Festschrift there is not only a truly impressive list of contributors; moreover, the articles are stimulating and highly informative, many providing new data or good overviews of specific topics.
The eighteen contributions (nine in German, eight in English and one in Italian, not counting the introduction in English) manage to encompass well the subjects covered by Mirković, an internationally renowned epigraphist, particularly known for her studies of the epigraphic record of Danubian and Balkan provinces as well as for her Roman army studies, chiefly related to beneficiarii, military diplomas and Roman army history in Pannonia. The introductory chapter by the three editors, ‘Exploring Roman (provincial) lives (mostly) through inscriptions’ provides a brief overview of her scholarly work as well as an outline of most of the contributions that follow. The introduction ends with a select bibliography of Mirković.
The volume is divided into three parts, relevant to the research fields covered by Mirković. The first one, ‘Epigraphica from Pannonia’, contains six papers mostly dealing with epigraphic finds pertaining to Pannonia. Ferjančić, in ‘Sirmium and the veterans of the Roman army’, gives an overview of the relevant epigraphic record from Sirmium, a major urban centre often studied by Mirković, including the role of the military in the city. The paper is mostly concerned with the inscriptions related to the veterans who were settled in this Flavian colony, more likely by Vespasian in my opinion, although Ferjančić leaves open the possibility that the colony was founded by Domitian (not a totally implausible hypothesis). Interestingly, Ferjančić provides good arguments for viritim veteran settlement before the official founding of the veteran colony. The paper by I. Popović, ‘Marble mensae from Sirmium as a Mediterranean tradition accepted by the early Christians’, is not solely concerned with the epigraphic record but is nonetheless a valuable study of the marble mensae in a larger context, i.e. Popović places the two types she has identified in a wider cultural framework, not only Pannonian but also encompassing the entire Balkan area, with a particular accent on Christian influences. J. Visočnik provides a useful comparison of votive inscriptions by beneficiarii from two major urban centres in ‘Beneficiarii in Celeia and Sirmium – analogy and contrast’. The epigraphic record from Sirmium has been extensively studied by Mirković, but the record from Celeia, although smaller, is nonetheless an interesting case study for a comparison between the two stationes.
P. Kovács, in ‘A Roman inscription from Intercisa and Marsigli’, thoroughly presents and interprets a now lost fragmentary building inscription (CIL III 3332), described and drawn by the Italian engineer Luigi Ferdinado Marsigli in the eighteenth century, and links it to the building activities in Intercisa, under either Commodus or Caracalla.
In ‘Die römischen Inschriften aus Serbien im Kunsthistorischen Museum in Wien’ E. Weber studies five inscriptions from Serbia (one from Viminacium and Acumincum each and three from Sirmium) in the holdings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. While they have all been published previously, Weber provides welcome comments and contextualisation.
This section ends with an exhaustive overview by I. Weber-Hiden, ‘Zur Chronologie und Form der Inschriftendenkmäler im nordwestlichen Pannonien’. It is a highly interesting analysis of several hundred funerary monuments from north-western Pannonia, focusing on the forms of the stelae and their variations as well as their decoration and the formulae used in the inscriptions. Her conclusions will be extremely useful to any future study of funerary monuments in Pannonia.
The next section, ‘Militaria’, clearly states the focus of the papers it contains. Two papers in the preceding section are also concerned with the Roman military in Pannonia, but papers in this section cover military topics from other provinces or more generally pertaining to the Roman army. P. Dyczek presents an interesting study of soldiers’ lives, or more precisely their accommodation, in ‘Everyday life of the legionaries from legio VIII Augusta at the castrum Novae: building a “home” on the Lower Danubian limes’. The paper focuses on the data provided by the excavations of the wooden fort at Novae in Moesia inferior, dated to the 45–69 ce period and showing fairly high living standards of the legionaries at that time.
The paper ‘Eine neue Inschrift der cohors VIII Raetorum aus Inlăceni/Énlaka’ by Z. Visy is the publication of a recently discovered building inscription from Dacia Superior, confirming the construction of the stone fort by the cohors VIII Raetorum in 149 ce.
As already noted, Roman military diplomas were of great interest to Mirković. It is therefore unsurprising that two well-known specialists, W. Eck and A. Pangerl, present a detailed article about the diploma issued to a veteran of the ala IIII Flaviana on 13 July 193 ce. Besides a thorough analysis of the diploma, the authors discuss the general context after the accession to the throne of Septimius Severus.
M. Hainzmann’s ‘Ius tribuo conubii – Beobachtungen zum Privilegienparagraphen der Prätorianerdiplome’ also deals with military diplomas, i.e. those of praetorian guards as well as soldiers of urban cohorts, which mention the privilege of marrying non-citizens. It is a comprehensive analysis that will be valuable to other scholars dealing with this topic. W. Spickermann, in ‘Die Soldatengattin in der Öffentlichkeit. Weihungen von Frauen und Ehepaaren aus dem Umfeld des römischen Heeres in Gallien und Germanien’, continues the subject of military families, i.e. spouses and children (another topic covered by Mirković), focusing on the votive epigraphic record from Gaul and Germany. The last paper in this section is ‘Daci und Sextodalmatae: Neue Evidenz zu zwei spätantiken Militäreinheiten’ by F. Mitthof. The author presents a hitherto unpublished papyrus from Vienna (P. Vindob. G 30121), a military account of provisions dated between 480 and 510 ce, mentioning detachments of numeri Dacorum and Sextodalmatarum and providing valuable information about those units’ deployment in Egypt during the last decades of the fifth century ce.
The last section, ‘Regions neighbouring Pannonia’, covers another subject present in the oeuvre of Mirković, who wrote a number of publications dealing with other Balkan provinces. D. Demicheli, in ‘A votive altar of the god Porobonus from Salona’, reassesses a votive altar from Salona, discovered in the 1980s and so far only briefly mentioned (and incorrectly interpreted) in preliminary reports. I can only agree with Demicheli’s interpretation that the beneficiarius tribuni of the legio XI Claudia must have dedicated the altar to the Moesian or Thracian god Porobonus, a seldom mentioned deity, whose apparent role was to ensure the good outcome of a journey. The fact that the dedicator came from a legion stationed in Lower Moesia is a strong argument in favour of this interpretation.
L. Jovanova, in ‘Three new milestones from Scupi of the emperors Elagabalus (or Severus Alexander?), Traianus Decius, and of the joined rule of Valerianus I with Gallienus’, also presents recently discovered and unpublished epigraphic finds. The three third-century ce milestones discussed were not found in situ but were likely meant to be reused as construction material. Nonetheless, they were almost certainly originally placed in close vicinity to Scupi; therefore they are testimonies of road reconstruction and repair under several emperors during the third century ce. The context and the reasons for those interventions are thoroughly explained by Jovanova, clearly emphasising the role played by Scupi as a major road network junction. Pelcer-Vujačić goes back to another topic extensively covered by Mirković, namely the Municipium “S”, most likely to be identified as Municipium Splonistarum. Her overview, ‘The gods of Municipium “S”’, discusses at length the votive monuments from that site and provides complete coverage of the topic. G. von Bülow, in ‘Eine neu entdeckte villa im Umfeld des Palastes Romuliana-Gamzigrad’, also returns to themes covered by Mirković, who wrote both about Romuliana and late Roman villae in the Balkans. Following Mirković’s steps, von Bülow elaborates further on the distinction between fortified villae and palaces during late Roman times.
K. Strobel takes us to Noricum in ‘Überlegungen zum concilium provinciae in regno Norico und zu einer neuen Rekonstruktion der augusteischen Ehreninschriften vom Magdalensberg’. He argues convincingly that the honorary inscription from Magdalensberg recording the eight Norican civitates and dated to the early Augustan period is to be considered as evidence for a large monument decorated with statues of Augustus and the Domus Augusta erected by the provincial council (concilium provinciae) around 11 bce.
The last paper of the section is L. Zerbini’s ‘Traiano e la raffigurazione della Spes Augusta nell’Arco di Traiano a Benevento’. Zerbini analyses the arch of Trajan in Benevento and uses numismatic evidence to identify one of the figures as Spes Augusta, discussing in detail the political and ideological messages purveyed by the monument.
This last contribution is followed by an index of epigraphic and literary sources, which concludes the volume. While commemorative volumes may be hit-and-miss affairs, in this case the editors have to be commended for assembling a balanced publication with good-quality papers providing valuable information, including plenty of previously unpublished material, truly a remarkable tribute to Professor Mirković. This is not a volume for readers superficially acquainted with Roman history, Roman military, epigraphy or Danube and Balkan provinces. However, specialists in these fields will certainly read it with great interest.
