WEBVTT 00:00:01.100 --> 00:00:02.400 Okay, so thanks so much. 00:00:02.401 --> 00:00:07.460 I will say, first of all, thank you to the organizers, but given the fact that we are 00:00:07.461 --> 00:00:10.440 the organizers, I think that I can skip that. 00:00:10.760 --> 00:00:14.280 Thank you all for coming here, and thank you all, of course, people who 00:00:14.281 --> 00:00:19.980 are online and who are watching us, so thank you so much for contributing to 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:28.160 this rich conference, and I'm gonna start right now, so Alexis, Magna... 00:00:28.161 --> 00:00:32.113 Occupied a particularly strategic position on the 00:00:32.114 --> 00:00:34.600 Gulf Circle, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. 00:00:35.789 --> 00:00:39.200 Originally founded as a Phoenician emporium and subsequently incorporated 00:00:39.201 --> 00:00:44.460 into the Carthaginian sphere, the city developed at the intersection of several 00:00:44.461 --> 00:00:49.560 networks, the maritime routes connecting the western and eastern Mediterranean, 00:00:50.259 --> 00:00:53.090 the coastal route between Carthage and Alexandria, and 00:00:53.091 --> 00:00:55.620 the routes leading southwards into the African interior. 00:00:55.621 --> 00:00:59.960 Its harbor, alongside the agricultural resources of its immediate coastal 00:00:59.961 --> 00:01:04.540 hinterland and gebel, notably olive oil, ensured that Lebanon became one of the 00:01:04.541 --> 00:01:06.680 most prosperous cities along the North African coast. 00:01:07.699 --> 00:01:12.220 By the late second and early third centuries, Leipzig had become a major 00:01:12.221 --> 00:01:15.363 exporter to Rome and the western Mediterranean, 00:01:15.364 --> 00:01:17.740 hence a crucial port for the provision of Rome. 00:01:19.229 --> 00:01:22.660 Its increasing maritime connectivity and economic growth were accompanied by a 00:01:22.661 --> 00:01:24.941 progressive transformation of the city's political status. 00:01:25.104 --> 00:01:29.440 Leipzig moved from a Phoenic civic community to a Roman municipium in the 7th 00:01:29.441 --> 00:01:33.560 century CE, and then, under Trajan, to a colonia in 109. 00:01:34.709 --> 00:01:37.153 Under Septimius Severus, who was born in Leipzig, 00:01:37.154 --> 00:01:40.600 the city received the ius Italicum, probably in 202. 00:01:41.569 --> 00:01:45.500 These changes provided the institutional framework within which local elites 00:01:45.699 --> 00:01:49.560 negotiated their simultaneous belonging to the native Phoenician Phoenic tradition 00:01:49.561 --> 00:01:54.360 and the Roman Empire, as well as their forms of sociopolitical self-representation. 00:01:55.234 --> 00:01:59.420 This is particularly visible in the Latin Neopoenic bilingualism of the epigraphic 00:01:59.421 --> 00:02:05.040 habit during the late 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, precisely the period 00:02:05.041 --> 00:02:08.240 in which the civic status of the community was being negotiated. 00:02:11.460 --> 00:02:15.400 The monumental development of the city broadly mirrors this process. 00:02:16.095 --> 00:02:20.480 The Augustan and Tiberian periods witnessed a first major phase of urban 00:02:20.481 --> 00:02:24.340 expansion and monumentalization, including the market, the theatre and the museum. 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:30.440 During the 2nd century, existing monuments were extensively renovated and embellished 00:02:30.865 --> 00:02:34.220 with imported marble, where a new construction, such as a conclude, 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:37.760 extended the urban fabric. 00:02:39.690 --> 00:02:43.240 This change in urban landscape was also a densely religious landscape. 00:02:44.180 --> 00:02:47.485 Archeological research has brought to light 23 Pendulum 00:02:47.486 --> 00:02:50.500 places distributed throughout the urban fabric. 00:02:50.625 --> 00:02:55.540 The Raetia's concentration was in and around the Forum Betus, a monumental 00:02:55.541 --> 00:03:00.020 complex erected in the Augustian period presided by the temple of Rome and 00:03:00.021 --> 00:03:04.980 Augustus himself, on both sides of which lie the temples of Lepsa's ancestral 00:03:04.981 --> 00:03:10.460 tutelary deities, Liber Patis, Liber Satrapa and Hercules Melkastat. 00:03:11.250 --> 00:03:13.445 The Forum also hosted the temple of Major Magna 00:03:13.446 --> 00:03:15.800 and other champions of uncertain dedication. 00:03:18.690 --> 00:03:23.300 The tutelary deities of Lepsa's were also each provided with a cultic space within 00:03:23.301 --> 00:03:25.692 the hegemonic baths, while the Chalkidicum 00:03:25.693 --> 00:03:28.460 housed a chapel of Augustus and Venus Chalkidica. 00:03:29.490 --> 00:03:33.700 The theatre contained a temple of the Via Augusti, a chapel of Ceres Augusta, 00:03:34.100 --> 00:03:36.261 and a monumental altar of unknown dedication, with 00:03:36.262 --> 00:03:38.620 the amphitheatre featured a chapel of Nemesis. 00:03:40.655 --> 00:03:44.860 Other temples occupied individual insulae within the workbook on Alucan Greek, 00:03:45.260 --> 00:03:48.580 such as the temple of Apollo and Vesarapeion, while the Severan Forum 00:03:48.581 --> 00:03:50.820 incorporated the temple of the genus Actinia. 00:03:51.660 --> 00:03:56.420 Furthermore, four temples stood within the harbour on its immediate surroundings, 00:03:57.220 --> 00:03:59.973 including the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Olicenus 00:03:59.974 --> 00:04:02.920 and three temples whose dedicaties remain unknown. 00:04:03.890 --> 00:04:08.460 Nearby, the temple of Neptune directly faced the harbour quay. 00:04:10.490 --> 00:04:14.760 The study we are presenting today on the religious epigraphy of this port city grew 00:04:14.761 --> 00:04:18.459 out of the convergence of our respective research interests. 00:04:19.280 --> 00:04:24.100 On the one hand, my work focuses on the religious transformations that took place 00:04:24.101 --> 00:04:29.540 in the imperial provinces of the Eastern Mediterranean, following the Roman conquest. 00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:34.760 On the other, the attrith research on the dynamics of religious change in port 00:04:34.761 --> 00:04:38.780 cities under the impact of increasing maritime mobility during the imperial period. 00:04:42.510 --> 00:04:43.540 Let's move on then. 00:04:43.541 --> 00:04:46.340 To the epigraphic analysis. 00:04:47.540 --> 00:04:52.280 The religious epigraphy of Leptis Magna consists essentially of dedicatory 00:04:52.281 --> 00:04:55.600 inscriptions relating to the foundation or restoration of good buildings, 00:04:55.820 --> 00:04:59.700 the election of divine statues, and other kinds of offerings and exvotos, 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:05.460 dating from the late 1st century BC to the 4th century CE. 00:05:06.320 --> 00:05:10.320 They amount to a total of around 255 texts. 00:05:11.200 --> 00:05:13.058 These are supplemented by a horrific and funerary legend, 00:05:13.059 --> 00:05:15.200 including inscriptions mentioned in priestly offices. 00:05:16.630 --> 00:05:21.540 61% of the dedications concern the imperial cult, which had a particularly 00:05:21.541 --> 00:05:25.260 strong presence in the city from the Augustan period and wars, owing to its 00:05:25.385 --> 00:05:26.640 promotion by the local elites. 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:32.640 The remaining inscriptions attest to around 59 deities, the vast majority of 00:05:32.641 --> 00:05:36.220 them Roman gods, or at least, deities bearing Roman names. 00:05:36.640 --> 00:05:40.940 For some of these deities at least, we know that there were translations of 00:05:40.941 --> 00:05:44.200 native Punic deities into the Roman cultural framework. 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:50.240 This is particularly the case with the divine pair at the head of Leptis, 00:05:50.990 --> 00:05:53.919 Liverpattin and Hercules, who represented the cultural 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:57.860 translations of the Punic deities Shadrapa and Milcastat. 00:05:59.650 --> 00:06:04.400 Only one further Punic deity is epigraphically documented, Elconeras, 00:06:04.880 --> 00:06:11.040 who might, as some scholars have suggested, who might likewise have been 00:06:11.041 --> 00:06:14.000 subject to an interpretative Romana through the figure of Neptune. 00:06:14.440 --> 00:06:17.940 We will return later to these cultural translations. 00:06:18.625 --> 00:06:23.320 The chart on the screen shows the full range of deities attested in the religious 00:06:23.321 --> 00:06:28.080 epigraphy of Leptis, excluding those belonging to the sphere of the imperial cult. 00:06:28.685 --> 00:06:32.880 Most deities are attested only once or twice, although a few have a more 00:06:32.881 --> 00:06:35.520 substantial epigraphic presence than you can see on the screen. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:41.380 A significant proportion of these dedications come from public epigraphy, 00:06:41.400 --> 00:06:43.718 from cult places, while the remaining inscriptions 00:06:43.719 --> 00:06:46.380 are archaeologically decontextualized. 00:06:46.660 --> 00:06:51.980 So we are dealing with a religious epigraphy predominantly intended for 00:06:51.981 --> 00:06:57.380 public display and related to religious activity in public cult sites. 00:06:59.060 --> 00:07:02.900 The bulk of the dedications are written in Latin. 00:07:06.805 --> 00:07:10.810 The use of Neopoenic, and particularly Latin Neopoenic, bilingualism is 00:07:10.811 --> 00:07:14.890 nevertheless significant, especially during the first century CE and in two 00:07:14.891 --> 00:07:19.990 specific contexts, dedications of monuments associated with imperial cults 00:07:20.780 --> 00:07:24.278 and dedications of cult buildings, statues and 00:07:24.279 --> 00:07:27.450 other ritual objects to Punic ancestral gods. 00:07:28.070 --> 00:07:31.650 In both cases, dedications were set up by members of the local elite. 00:07:32.380 --> 00:07:37.430 The use of Greek, by contrast, is concentrated in the cult of Seus Aelius 00:07:37.431 --> 00:07:43.070 Megacerapis, represented by around a dozen inscriptions, an apparently important 00:07:43.071 --> 00:07:46.727 dialect from Alexandria, as well as in the cult 00:07:46.728 --> 00:07:49.790 of Asclepius, where Greek occurs alongside Latin. 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:54.710 Not coincidentally, these are the only two cults in which the participation of 00:07:54.711 --> 00:07:57.530 migrants from the eastern Mediterranean is epigraphically attested. 00:07:58.135 --> 00:08:02.890 As regards the social profile of the dedications, the corpus is characterized 00:08:02.891 --> 00:08:07.790 by a marked predominance of individuals belonging to the local civic elites, 00:08:07.995 --> 00:08:09.090 specifically men. 00:08:09.091 --> 00:08:13.050 Among the dedications of inscriptions unrelated to the imperial cult, 00:08:13.315 --> 00:08:15.690 we find 60 men and 13 women. 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:19.950 Among the male dedications, members of the local civic elite, holy and civic 00:08:19.951 --> 00:08:23.350 magistracies or public preschools are particularly prominent. 00:08:24.570 --> 00:08:26.870 17 individuals can be identified. 00:08:27.460 --> 00:08:30.600 The largest group, however, consists of 19 men whose social 00:08:30.601 --> 00:08:33.110 and legal status cannot be determined with certainty. 00:08:33.745 --> 00:08:36.358 Also noteworthy is the presence of eight high-ranking 00:08:36.359 --> 00:08:41.250 imperial officials, namely Provisian governors. 00:08:42.139 --> 00:08:46.910 At the other end of the social spectrum, the corpus includes three imperial slaves 00:08:46.911 --> 00:08:50.290 and one imperial freedman, as well as two members of the military. 00:08:50.989 --> 00:08:55.870 In addition, we can identify 12 foreign male dedications, primarily associated 00:08:55.871 --> 00:09:00.490 with the cult of Seus Aelius Megasarapis, 11 men, presumably from Alexandria, 00:09:01.089 --> 00:09:03.290 all of whom held Roman citizenship. 00:09:04.219 --> 00:09:06.670 The sole exception is a devotee of Asclepius, who 00:09:06.671 --> 00:09:12.890 identifies himself as a marmorarius from Nicomedia. 00:09:14.169 --> 00:09:18.950 Among the 13 female dedications, at least one can be identified as a member 00:09:18.951 --> 00:09:26.570 of the local elite, two as free-born women, while the status of four remain uncertain. 00:09:27.315 --> 00:09:31.990 Finally, alongside these individual dedications, six dedications were made 00:09:31.991 --> 00:09:35.070 collectively by the civic community of the Lepfitami. 00:09:36.695 --> 00:09:41.390 The epigraphic analysis conducted demonstrates that the choice of language 00:09:41.391 --> 00:09:45.450 on the Lepfitami dedications was not merely a pragmatic matter. 00:09:46.079 --> 00:09:50.650 Rather, it reflects more or less conscious efforts to articulate different cultural 00:09:50.651 --> 00:09:54.650 frameworks, carried out by worshippers who were integrated into an ideological 00:09:54.651 --> 00:09:57.468 superstructure, the Roman Empire, with which they 00:09:57.469 --> 00:09:59.990 were required to display and experience alignment. 00:10:01.079 --> 00:10:04.990 In certain instances, for example, we observe strategies of cultural 00:10:04.991 --> 00:10:09.630 cross-switching, as seen in the trilingual dedication of Adelubrum and Anatrium by 00:10:09.631 --> 00:10:17.630 Kekilius Diodorus, which allowed the dedicated dedicator to address simultaneus 00:10:17.631 --> 00:10:20.636 weapons to the Roman administration, the Hellenized elite, 00:10:20.637 --> 00:10:22.950 the commercial Mediterranean, and the local population. 00:10:23.634 --> 00:10:30.990 In other cases, such as the dedications to the emperor Domitian, where all three 00:10:30.991 --> 00:10:34.770 languages appear on a set of distant local markers through the mention of 00:10:34.771 --> 00:10:39.270 magistracies, suffeter, alongside numerous religious offices, and Latin translations 00:10:39.271 --> 00:10:45.810 of local expressions, we find a residual space in which imperial forms are adopted 00:10:45.811 --> 00:10:48.350 and adapted to indigenous preferences and traditions. 00:10:49.349 --> 00:10:52.970 This coexistence of Punic Roman quotes, however, was short-lived. 00:10:53.999 --> 00:10:58.110 Both the written record of Neopanic and purely local formulae disappeared from the 00:10:58.111 --> 00:11:01.790 surviving epigraphy by the end of the first century CE. 00:11:02.849 --> 00:11:10.290 The final testimony being precisely dated in which appeared a suffetator is a 00:11:10.291 --> 00:11:13.010 dedication to the emperor Domitian in 92 CE. 00:11:14.069 --> 00:11:18.590 In other inscriptions, such as the one written exclusively in Neoponic, 00:11:20.809 --> 00:11:26.630 dedicating the temple of Roman Augustus, along with the entire family, in the forum 00:11:26.631 --> 00:11:30.363 Betus, we witness another variable in the process 00:11:30.364 --> 00:11:32.730 of identity negotiated by the local elites. 00:11:39.209 --> 00:11:44.840 The text attests that the dedication of the temple to the entire Domus was 00:11:44.841 --> 00:11:48.331 performed by two suffeters, Baleaton, son of Anas Saturninus, 00:11:48.332 --> 00:11:52.340 and Bodelmelkart Tava Figeraecus, son of Bodmelkart. 00:11:53.039 --> 00:11:57.180 These demonstrate that the suffeters were essential promoters of this devotion, 00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:01.740 using the Punic political institution Parasalans to integrate the precepts into 00:12:01.741 --> 00:12:04.000 the sacred architecture and daily life of the Uts. 00:12:04.909 --> 00:12:09.120 That the inscription was composed solely in Neoponic provides sufficient proof that 00:12:09.121 --> 00:12:13.380 at the beginning of the first century CE, the Latin language was not still 00:12:13.381 --> 00:12:17.760 indispensable for politically legitimating an act of loyalty and alignment with the 00:12:17.761 --> 00:12:21.860 imperial factor, while simultaneously defining its intended audience. 00:12:22.629 --> 00:12:26.040 The text's intent was not to attract attention, devotion, and cultic practice 00:12:26.041 --> 00:12:29.860 of a bilingual or foreign population already integrated the Roman structure, 00:12:30.659 --> 00:12:33.880 but rather specifically to engage the local Occitanian population. 00:12:34.844 --> 00:12:38.940 Its constituents are direct, or native, act of communication, designed to 00:12:38.941 --> 00:12:41.748 demonstrate the protection of the domus, not to the 00:12:41.749 --> 00:12:44.080 elites, but to those lower down the social hierarchy. 00:12:45.059 --> 00:12:50.620 Upon beheading both the message and the topographical symbolism, the temple was 00:12:50.621 --> 00:12:54.740 constructed in the Forum Betus, directly between the temples of Lexius, 00:12:54.895 --> 00:12:56.640 Tutelary Gods, Sadrapa, and Mirkastart. 00:12:57.374 --> 00:13:00.780 The later must have experienced the semiotics of power to their full extent. 00:13:01.579 --> 00:13:05.520 Rome, and by extension the Emperor, did not replace ancestral deities, 00:13:06.019 --> 00:13:09.140 and set, they adapt, and place themselves in the same plane. 00:13:09.684 --> 00:13:13.640 Therefore, the Suspetus integrates them into the role as protectors of the 00:13:13.641 --> 00:13:18.080 community, merging the traditional pantheon with the Roman one, in order to 00:13:18.081 --> 00:13:20.172 negotiate the neopreonic role within the 00:13:20.173 --> 00:13:22.380 imperial ecumenia as successfully as possible. 00:13:23.704 --> 00:13:29.980 In the specific case of Lexius Magna, the alignment of local oligarchies was a 00:13:29.981 --> 00:13:33.280 conditious inequanim for the triumph of the so-called imperial cult. 00:13:33.819 --> 00:13:37.000 It was precisely these oligarchies, in a strikingly high proportion, 00:13:37.704 --> 00:13:42.180 that acted as agents for its consolidation and expansion, combining the round civic 00:13:42.181 --> 00:13:44.658 elements with Roman frameworks of power to lead, 00:13:44.659 --> 00:13:47.060 mate, and maintain the privilege of social politics. 00:13:48.509 --> 00:13:53.800 Several of these families are represented, for instance, by Idrigal Magonista Papius, 00:13:54.179 --> 00:13:55.179 in I.R.T. 00:13:56.320 --> 00:13:59.200 273, who made the dedication of this Augustus. 00:13:59.834 --> 00:14:05.640 Edivali Emilius, aphelios Campala Emilius, a Phrygian affiliation and very nasy 00:14:05.641 --> 00:14:09.860 mythic cognomen, who nevertheless adopted the structure of the Trianomina and 00:14:09.861 --> 00:14:14.560 surface of Augustan flamen, Paevilius Claudius Cestius, a suffeter virion 00:14:14.561 --> 00:14:18.400 Trianomina, who also had the flaminate of Pespersian and the office of Praefectus 00:14:18.499 --> 00:14:23.920 Sacrorum, and Ithimbal Sabinus Tapapis, belonging to the most powerful family of 00:14:23.921 --> 00:14:26.780 the local oligarchy and flamen of the divine Augustus. 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:33.440 It was precisely the family of the later that was responsible for the creation of 00:14:33.441 --> 00:14:37.580 some of the city's most prominent architectural works over the years, 00:14:37.929 --> 00:14:39.740 from both a civic and religious standpoint. 00:14:40.579 --> 00:14:45.040 Among these, they financed the construction of the central market and a 00:14:45.139 --> 00:14:48.380 theater at Leptis, we have one of the inscriptions that is that, whose 00:14:48.381 --> 00:14:51.280 dedications are trilingual and mention the Domus Imperatoria. 00:14:52.379 --> 00:14:56.380 This establishes a virtuosic horizon defined by strategies of capital 00:14:56.381 --> 00:14:59.206 accumulation unparalleled in the region, which 00:14:59.207 --> 00:15:02.020 position the lineage above typical local structures. 00:15:02.819 --> 00:15:05.001 All of this helps to confirm a consistent 00:15:05.002 --> 00:15:07.700 process at both the social and religious levels. 00:15:08.409 --> 00:15:12.440 Oligarians did not choose between one identity or another, nor did they simply 00:15:12.441 --> 00:15:15.353 assimilate it into the Roman system, with all 00:15:15.354 --> 00:15:17.280 that implied from a decolonial perspective. 00:15:18.039 --> 00:15:21.860 Rather, they engaged in a simultaneous capitalization of culturally different 00:15:21.861 --> 00:15:24.872 resources, symbols and languages, but enabled the 00:15:24.873 --> 00:15:28.440 consolidation of their position within the structures of power. 00:15:30.609 --> 00:15:35.740 In this integration of the foreign and the local, two monumental spaces played a role 00:15:35.741 --> 00:15:38.260 of major significance, the theatre and the chalcilico. 00:15:38.829 --> 00:15:42.540 In this location, some material serves to anchor new devotions within local 00:15:42.541 --> 00:15:47.620 concepts, such as the case with the devotion to Ceres Augusta at Leptis Magna, 00:15:47.839 --> 00:15:51.980 as evidenced by two monumental sculptures preserved from the theatre sanctuary. 00:15:53.089 --> 00:15:57.960 The first, set up following a dedication by Sufun Ibal, a woman, in 3536, 00:15:58.440 --> 00:16:03.120 was a metapentelic marble statue, placed along the central axis of the cave. 00:16:03.379 --> 00:16:07.920 This sculpture unites the iconography of Ceres with that of Tije, linking local 00:16:07.921 --> 00:16:10.260 agricultural abundance and prosperity with imperial order. 00:16:11.189 --> 00:16:15.040 The second preserved sculpture, dated to or adapted during the Claudium 00:16:15.041 --> 00:16:19.220 period, represents the goddess with the specific portrait features and attributes 00:16:19.221 --> 00:16:22.580 characteristic of Livia, following her formal dedication. 00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:29.120 The female patron Sufun Ibal, or Natix Patriae, in the inscription, demonstrates 00:16:29.121 --> 00:16:32.020 the capacity of elite women to shape the religious landscape. 00:16:32.539 --> 00:16:36.000 This case is neither unique nor unprecedented within the city, 00:16:36.319 --> 00:16:39.480 although it remains a minority phenomenon compared to other epigraphic records from 00:16:39.481 --> 00:16:44.160 North Africa or Hispania, as demonstrated by the case of Iulia Severa Gaetulica, 00:16:44.694 --> 00:16:47.580 who completed the construction of a temple for Polo in the city. 00:16:49.569 --> 00:16:53.660 Although the epithet Augustus Augusta, widely applied to numerous agents of how 00:16:53.661 --> 00:16:57.580 the Roman world cannot systematically be understood as a reference to the imperial 00:16:57.581 --> 00:17:00.060 court, in this particular case, its attribution 00:17:00.061 --> 00:17:02.900 to Keryles is a clear connection with it. 00:17:03.549 --> 00:17:07.540 While scholars often highlight how terms like imperial court can be overused 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:12.220 through a dynamic of terminology called hyperinflation, and we have here a Heimel 00:17:12.221 --> 00:17:18.500 bar to demonstrate that, similar to the widespread application of sanctus in other 00:17:18.501 --> 00:17:22.160 settings, the reference to the imperial court in this particular case seems clear, 00:17:22.300 --> 00:17:24.860 insofar as the statue of Keryles, commissioned by Sufun 00:17:24.861 --> 00:17:27.021 Ibal, assumes the partial feature of the empress Livia. 00:17:28.759 --> 00:17:31.440 As we can see, as Jenny Wallenstein has recently demonstrated regarding the 00:17:31.441 --> 00:17:34.760 nomadic structure of Domus Imperatoriae members, there is a key distinction 00:17:34.761 --> 00:17:39.300 between secondary re-identification, addressing an empress as Livia Nea 00:17:39.301 --> 00:17:43.300 Aphrodite, for example, and complete forensic re-identification, such as Livia 00:17:43.301 --> 00:17:45.660 Aphrodite, or here Keryles Augusta carries Livia. 00:17:46.459 --> 00:17:49.619 In this sanctuary, the divine person of Keryles and the imperial person of Livia 00:17:50.519 --> 00:17:54.300 undergo a direct iconographic and conceptual merging, confirming that the 00:17:54.301 --> 00:17:57.900 dynamic at work is the embedding of the imperial court within the local pattern. 00:17:58.764 --> 00:18:02.140 And regarding this, in the older monumental space, the addition during the 00:18:02.141 --> 00:18:07.420 reign of Antoninus Peius by Caius Claudius Septimius of a statue of Venus Chalcidica 00:18:07.421 --> 00:18:11.700 with Cupid to the sign of Augustus highlights the dynamic character of cults 00:18:11.701 --> 00:18:14.700 and secret space, subject to continuous reconfiguration. 00:18:17.399 --> 00:18:22.060 Cultic artefacts cause or so the worshipper personally interprets the 00:18:22.060 --> 00:18:25.600 protective baggage of the Chalcidic one to become associated with the proceeds of the 00:18:25.601 --> 00:18:29.040 deified emperor, establishing a profound social relationship between the two. 00:18:30.980 --> 00:18:36.820 Quantitatively, as previously noted, approximately 254 inscriptions directly 00:18:36.821 --> 00:18:43.320 related to the imperial court survive, accounting for 61% of all dedications 00:18:43.840 --> 00:18:46.380 preserved from the 1st to the 4th century C. 00:18:46.500 --> 00:18:47.980 in the city of Les Magna. 00:18:48.484 --> 00:18:50.320 Among these, four dynasties predominate. 00:18:51.319 --> 00:18:56.440 The Julio-Claudian with an 80%, the Flavian with a 7%, the Antonine with a 00:18:56.441 --> 00:19:00.800 9% and of course the Severan with their 55% of the recourse preserved. 00:19:01.439 --> 00:19:02.460 These can be observed. 00:19:02.859 --> 00:19:06.260 The Severan dynasty represents more than half of the surviving epigraphic production. 00:19:08.869 --> 00:19:12.340 Septimius Severus, as you know, can be seen to transform the imperial 00:19:12.341 --> 00:19:15.760 court from a strategy of local elite integration into hyperbolic monumental 00:19:15.761 --> 00:19:19.160 rhetoric sponsored by both the community and the imperial house. 00:19:19.699 --> 00:19:23.640 On the other hand, the public visibility of women within the Domus Imperatoria is 00:19:23.641 --> 00:19:26.940 striking when contrasted with the numerical scarcity of other women. 00:19:27.809 --> 00:19:32.006 Thus, the total direct dedication to individuals 00:19:32.106 --> 00:19:36.080 91% to men almost 80% and 20% to women. 00:19:37.109 --> 00:19:41.132 However, 85% of female dedications are 00:19:41.133 --> 00:19:45.000 concentrated exclusively in the Severan period. 00:19:45.729 --> 00:19:49.120 This phenomenon responds directly to the programme of political representation 00:19:49.121 --> 00:19:56.540 promoted around Julia Donna, which was utilised by the urban elite to honour the 00:19:56.541 --> 00:19:58.820 empress for her sacred patronage and iconography. 00:20:01.059 --> 00:20:06.420 Moving beyond the imperial cult, the transformation of the Lexis religion 00:20:06.469 --> 00:20:10.091 through its incorporation into the imperial 00:20:10.092 --> 00:20:13.300 framework deeply affected the native cults. 00:20:14.159 --> 00:20:20.900 A lexitan and neoponic inscription dated between the late second and mid first 00:20:20.901 --> 00:20:24.417 century BCE commemorates the dedication of a bronze statue 00:20:24.418 --> 00:20:27.960 to the lord Shadrapa and to Milka Starr's masters of Lexis. 00:20:29.034 --> 00:20:35.280 These two deities maintain their prevalent position at the head of the local 00:20:35.281 --> 00:20:40.620 pantheonic configuration during the imperial period but through their Roman 00:20:40.940 --> 00:20:43.720 interpretation as Liber Paten and Hercules. 00:20:44.419 --> 00:20:48.782 A bilingual neoponic Latin inscription explicitly attests 00:20:48.783 --> 00:20:52.240 to the cultural translation of Shadrapa as Liber Paten. 00:20:52.599 --> 00:20:56.860 It records the dedication of a statue to the god erected in the city's printing 00:20:56.861 --> 00:21:02.060 market during the first century CE by a local magistrate with Semitic economistics. 00:21:03.559 --> 00:21:07.460 From the Augustan period onwards, Shadrapa was represented both in sculpture 00:21:07.461 --> 00:21:11.220 and on coins following the conventional iconographic models of Bacchus Liber, 00:21:11.420 --> 00:21:16.300 adopting his characteristic attributes while Milca's heart was likewise depicted 00:21:16.499 --> 00:21:19.220 according to the iconographic types of the Roman Hercules. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:24.200 In a fragmentary Latin inscription carved on a pedestal erected in the forum, 00:21:24.749 --> 00:21:27.960 Hercules and Liber Paten are jointly involved as the patriae. 00:21:29.199 --> 00:21:34.980 Both gods are also individually designated as genius coloniae in several dedications. 00:21:35.819 --> 00:21:40.400 This onomastic attribute emphasised the local anchoring by equating them with the 00:21:40.401 --> 00:21:44.540 genius of the colony, a supernatural entity that in the Roman world functioned 00:21:44.541 --> 00:21:49.420 as the protective power par excellence of a civic community and which at leftist was 00:21:49.421 --> 00:21:51.660 also worshipped as an independent divine figure. 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:56.111 Yet the application of the title genius coloniae to the 00:21:56.112 --> 00:21:59.240 tutelary gods of a city is extremely rare in the Roman world. 00:21:59.724 --> 00:22:05.600 A city's principal deities were not normally characterised as gany. 00:22:07.169 --> 00:22:11.280 So this characterisation of leftist tutelary gods themselves in these terms 00:22:11.904 --> 00:22:15.602 may point to a distinctively local naming practice 00:22:15.603 --> 00:22:18.520 perhaps rooted in an earlier Punic designation. 00:22:19.574 --> 00:22:22.500 Along similar lines, Liverpatter 00:22:26.349 --> 00:22:30.560 is described as the Lar of the city of Severus in adverse dedication, 00:22:31.809 --> 00:22:35.300 erected in Dexedra at the south-eastern corner of the Old Forum. 00:22:35.799 --> 00:22:38.697 The dedicator was a municipal magistrate thanking 00:22:38.698 --> 00:22:41.680 Liverpatter for the successful career of his son. 00:22:43.015 --> 00:22:44.015 Designating 00:22:57.060 --> 00:23:02.280 Liverpatter as a of the Greco-Roman and Bacchus Dionysus, as expressed both by his 00:23:02.281 --> 00:23:05.597 Jovian genealogy and by the reference to his Indian 00:23:05.697 --> 00:23:08.200 elephants in connection with Prudence's dedication. 00:23:08.965 --> 00:23:14.000 Could this inscription then, as some scholars have suggested, attest to an 00:23:14.001 --> 00:23:17.580 evolution in the conceptualization of Liverpatter during the imperial period 00:23:17.581 --> 00:23:22.640 involving a gradual weakening of the god's original Punic character as Shadrapa and 00:23:22.641 --> 00:23:25.520 an increasing assimilation to the Greco-Roman figure of Bacchus Liver? 00:23:26.749 --> 00:23:28.540 We will return to this question shortly. 00:23:29.069 --> 00:23:32.880 Before doing so, however, let us turn to another final document. 00:23:34.774 --> 00:23:39.012 The Punic market, which housed the statue of Shadrapa 00:23:39.013 --> 00:23:41.940 Liverpatter, also yielded a second bilingual dedication. 00:23:42.874 --> 00:23:47.380 It was addressed to the only other deity besides the tutelary pair of Lexus Magna, 00:23:47.959 --> 00:23:52.760 whom we can identify as a possible cultural translation of a Phoenician Punic god. 00:23:53.454 --> 00:23:55.940 Only the precise identity of the Punic deity remains uncertain. 00:23:57.669 --> 00:24:03.700 The dedicator of these inscriptions, Cuator Virma Kelly, addresses the god 00:24:03.899 --> 00:24:08.619 through a Latin and Romantic sequence that clearly 00:24:08.620 --> 00:24:12.620 articulates his embeddedness with a Roman religious framework. 00:24:13.319 --> 00:24:17.760 Indeed, the use of the epithet Augustus follows a widespread conventionalized way 00:24:18.459 --> 00:24:20.700 of naming gods throughout the Roman world. 00:24:22.959 --> 00:24:28.120 Still, even though the Neoponic text of the dedication does not preserve the name 00:24:28.121 --> 00:24:32.560 of the god venerated, some scholars have suggested that a Semitic deity may have 00:24:32.709 --> 00:24:37.360 corresponded to Neptune in this document, perhaps the god Elkone Aras. 00:24:38.680 --> 00:24:40.340 Elkone Aras is in fact 00:24:53.080 --> 00:24:57.820 described as the god El creator of the earth and etc. 00:24:58.060 --> 00:24:59.120 within the amphitheatre. 00:24:59.784 --> 00:25:03.778 The description dedicated to the god El creator 00:25:03.779 --> 00:25:08.020 of the earth dates to the early second century CE. 00:25:09.344 --> 00:25:13.380 And it was selected by a man with a Latin name, who nevertheless records his 00:25:13.381 --> 00:25:18.840 ancestry in Neoponic and who forbears Biosemitic names. 00:25:20.179 --> 00:25:25.360 And the hypothesis that Neptune may be translated maybe the Roman interpretation 00:25:25.361 --> 00:25:30.606 of El Kone Aras is based in this Palmyrean parallel where a 00:25:30.607 --> 00:25:38.300 Palmyrean inscription where Poseidon translates El Kone Aras. 00:25:40.879 --> 00:25:46.480 But if this hypothesis that Neptune may be the Roman interpretation of this Semitic 00:25:46.481 --> 00:25:54.420 god is correct, the inscription reveals the dedication to El Kone Aras in Punic 00:25:54.619 --> 00:25:58.960 reveals that such a process of cultural translations did not entail the 00:25:58.961 --> 00:26:02.300 obliteration of El Kone Aras as a distinctively Semitic deity. 00:26:02.729 --> 00:26:07.560 In other words, his Roman translation did not result in complete assimilation or 00:26:07.561 --> 00:26:14.020 identification and hence disappearance of his distinct local divine entity. 00:26:14.779 --> 00:26:22.160 Yet, even if we reject the hypothesis that Neptune is the translation of El Kone 00:26:22.161 --> 00:26:29.420 Aras, still the dedication to the Punic deity provides evidence for the continued 00:26:29.421 --> 00:26:34.840 vitality of the Punic religious tradition in Lefis Magna, and suggests that the 00:26:34.841 --> 00:26:39.140 strategies of hybrid representation of the local elites from the First Centurion Wars 00:26:39.141 --> 00:26:43.980 contributed to keeping alive within the collective memory of the community a sense 00:26:43.981 --> 00:26:50.520 of belonging to a Punic culture or rather a hybrid Semitic Punic Roman culture. 00:26:52.759 --> 00:26:57.280 This observation calls into question an absolution frequently encountered in 00:26:57.281 --> 00:27:00.369 scholarship in accounts of the religious transformations 00:27:00.370 --> 00:27:03.780 that took place in North Africa over the Roman period. 00:27:07.789 --> 00:27:12.340 Traditionally, the interpretation of North African gods and more widely the change of 00:27:12.341 --> 00:27:15.420 native cults as they were incorporated into the Roman cultural and religious 00:27:15.421 --> 00:27:18.949 frameworks have been approached through rather 00:27:18.950 --> 00:27:22.400 reductive one-directional hermeneutic models. 00:27:22.401 --> 00:27:27.140 Such accounts have sometimes adopted an implicitly teleological perspective 00:27:27.314 --> 00:27:32.360 according to which Roman religious forms progressively prevailed over and 00:27:32.584 --> 00:27:36.065 inevitably came to absorb indigenous traditions which 00:27:36.066 --> 00:27:39.160 consequently disappeared through complete assimilation. 00:27:39.799 --> 00:27:47.100 The transformations undergone by the major lexitan gods have commonly been viewed 00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:54.977 in Roman leftists that have widely been regarded 00:27:54.978 --> 00:27:57.660 as Roman interpretations of Venetian Punic gods. 00:27:58.284 --> 00:28:01.240 These cases of interpretation have often been approached 00:28:11.980 --> 00:28:17.740 from a perspective in which over time the Punic and the Venetian Punic gods of the 00:28:17.741 --> 00:28:20.780 local religious tradition are understood ultimately to 00:28:20.781 --> 00:28:23.160 have been fully assimilated to the Roman counterparts. 00:28:23.809 --> 00:28:27.060 Yet this is precisely what should not be taken for granted. 00:28:28.239 --> 00:28:32.140 Rather than treating complete assimilation as the pretermine outcome of these 00:28:32.141 --> 00:28:35.230 processes of cultural translations, we should 00:28:35.231 --> 00:28:37.860 problematize it and turn it into our research question. 00:28:38.669 --> 00:28:43.120 To what extent and in what ways did processes of cultural translation actually 00:28:43.121 --> 00:28:45.243 entail the gradual dissolution and disappearance 00:28:45.244 --> 00:28:46.960 of the religious forms being translated? 00:28:47.844 --> 00:28:51.640 Or, on the contrary, was this very process of building bridges and negotiating 00:28:51.641 --> 00:28:56.380 between elements belonging to different cultural origins itself generative? 00:28:57.044 --> 00:29:01.260 Would it produce new configurations in which both familial and alien elements 00:29:01.509 --> 00:29:04.900 were transformed, creating new and interconnected layers of meaning? 00:29:06.159 --> 00:29:09.100 In addressing these questions, it is important to stress that the Roman 00:29:09.101 --> 00:29:12.720 gods and cults that provided cultural reference for the translation of 00:29:12.721 --> 00:29:18.260 indigenous deities and religious practices in imperial provinces should never be 00:29:18.261 --> 00:29:22.620 understood as fixed, self-contained divine figures with clearly defined boundaries. 00:29:23.059 --> 00:29:27.240 They were themselves flexible divine configurations with porous boundaries that 00:29:27.389 --> 00:29:29.540 allowed for entanglements and cultural mixing. 00:29:30.459 --> 00:29:33.860 Interpretatio could therefore produce new religious conceptions and written 00:29:33.861 --> 00:29:36.834 configurations through the mutual transformations 00:29:36.835 --> 00:29:39.440 of elements drawn from different religious cultures. 00:29:41.589 --> 00:29:45.380 This leads us to consider more fundamental questions about the very process of 00:29:45.381 --> 00:29:47.880 interpretation in the polytheistic Mediterranean world. 00:29:48.814 --> 00:29:53.640 What cognitive operations and cultural religious resonance underpined such a process? 00:29:54.049 --> 00:29:58.860 What did such translations entail for the worshippers' understanding of the two gods 00:29:59.059 --> 00:30:00.059 brought into relation? 00:30:00.919 --> 00:30:05.540 And for the ways in which the translated deities were worshipped? 00:30:06.739 --> 00:30:10.220 In Lettice Magna, the interpretation of Shadrapa and Milga through the Roman 00:30:10.221 --> 00:30:15.920 reference was part of a strategy pursued by local Phoenician Punic elites to 00:30:15.921 --> 00:30:19.522 negotiate their integration into the Roman imperial order 00:30:19.523 --> 00:30:22.520 through articulation of different cultural frames of reference. 00:30:25.489 --> 00:30:33.200 Precisely in the case of Lettice indeed there are good reasons to assume that a 00:30:33.201 --> 00:30:36.577 sense of belonging to a Punic culture had never 00:30:36.677 --> 00:30:40.060 been erased from the collective memory of the city. 00:30:40.764 --> 00:30:44.220 Neoponic script in bilingual or monolingual religious buildings and 00:30:44.221 --> 00:30:48.200 honorific inscriptions in prominent political and civic spaces continue to 00:30:48.201 --> 00:30:53.440 preserve and display the memory of ancestral gods and civic benefactors of 00:30:53.589 --> 00:30:54.860 Punic onomastics. 00:30:55.399 --> 00:30:58.594 Their continuing visibility contributed to keeping this local 00:30:58.595 --> 00:31:01.120 past present within the collective memory of the community. 00:31:04.900 --> 00:31:12.900 We asked us some final considerations about the presence or absence of the 00:31:12.901 --> 00:31:20.420 foreign element in Lefis beyond these Roman imported elements. 00:31:21.260 --> 00:31:27.340 I was surprised by the absence of more epigraphic evidence relating to migrants. 00:31:28.044 --> 00:31:31.220 Where are the migrants and the foreign culture we might expect to find in a port 00:31:31.221 --> 00:31:33.357 city integrated into the maritime networks 00:31:33.358 --> 00:31:35.320 connecting the Western and Eastern Mediterranean. 00:31:36.444 --> 00:31:40.840 For which we possess such an abundant epigraphic and archaeological evidence. 00:31:44.480 --> 00:31:47.137 We haven't found so much evidence relating 00:31:47.138 --> 00:31:49.560 to these migrants that we already mentioned. 00:31:49.760 --> 00:31:52.180 This is only limited to these 00:32:01.460 --> 00:32:01.620 people. 00:32:01.621 --> 00:32:06.980 Asclepius where we also have only one dedication related to Marmorarius from 00:32:06.981 --> 00:32:13.240 Nicomedia and the cult of Theuselius Megasarapis that based on the 12 00:32:13.241 --> 00:32:17.863 dedications that we have to this God, we may infer that 00:32:17.864 --> 00:32:21.060 he was mainly worshipped by migrants from Alexandria. 00:32:21.061 --> 00:32:26.440 So, there is no more evidence related to migrants or foreign cults in the city. 00:32:27.019 --> 00:32:32.120 We think that this may be related to different factors. 00:32:32.659 --> 00:32:38.560 First of all, in the documentary Bias, we are dealing with monumental public and 00:32:38.561 --> 00:32:45.000 elite dominated epigraphy that mostly concerns the imperial cults and Roman 00:32:45.001 --> 00:32:50.300 cults in the city, or at least translation, Roman translations of native cults. 00:32:51.354 --> 00:32:54.372 We also regret the loss of evidence related to the 00:32:54.373 --> 00:32:57.420 four temples that were located in the Hebron area. 00:32:58.309 --> 00:33:03.980 Three of these temples are today an unknown because there is no epigraphic or 00:33:03.981 --> 00:33:10.080 archaeological evidence or sculptural evidence that gives us a clue about the 00:33:10.081 --> 00:33:12.720 ghosts to whom these temples were dedicated. 00:33:17.020 --> 00:33:25.020 We may wonder if maritime mobility and this is the question that Jaime raised 00:33:25.021 --> 00:33:31.420 yesterday, if there are some cultic agents that are invisible in the epigraphy. 00:33:32.140 --> 00:33:37.251 There is no trace in the left Italian epigraphy 00:33:37.252 --> 00:33:42.300 about sailors, merchants and other kinds of migrants. 00:33:44.280 --> 00:33:52.280 Perhaps we should look at other kinds of evidence such as small archaeological 00:33:52.281 --> 00:33:55.820 finds such as figurines, amulets, lamps, portable votives. 00:33:56.049 --> 00:34:03.900 This could give us a larger picture of the religious life of Lefis Magna. 00:34:04.040 --> 00:34:09.360 But unfortunately there is not so much evidence of these small finds in the city. 00:34:12.230 --> 00:34:19.739 Maybe it's better if I skip all in order to have time for questions. 00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:25.060 So in conclusion the first one is that ethnographic and monumental evidence 00:34:25.061 --> 00:34:28.336 demonstrated interpretation of ancestral Punic deities 00:34:28.337 --> 00:34:30.920 did not entail the racial of the city's Semitic heritage. 00:34:31.500 --> 00:34:35.219 Rather, these cultural translations created layers of meaning allowing Punic 00:34:35.220 --> 00:34:37.340 and Roman religious concepts to coexist and transform. 00:34:39.260 --> 00:34:44.040 And, of course, the local civil elite emerged as the primary catalyst for 00:34:44.041 --> 00:34:48.960 religious innovation and monumentalization in the specifically regarding the imperial 00:34:48.961 --> 00:34:51.620 cause through egregitism and the promotion of police. 00:34:52.840 --> 00:34:54.020 Local oligarchs successfully 00:35:05.720 --> 00:35:10.020 established the social political center. 00:35:10.830 --> 00:35:11.860 Thank you so much. 00:35:13.400 --> 00:35:14.400 And... Yes. 00:35:21.020 --> 00:35:23.130 Can you exit your own presentation? 00:35:24.750 --> 00:35:25.506 Yes. 00:35:25.530 --> 00:35:27.890 So we can put the chat in the... 00:35:27.891 --> 00:35:30.331 Because if not, we cannot see the questions on the microphone. 00:35:33.370 --> 00:35:34.870 Thank you very much. 00:35:35.630 --> 00:35:38.850 I have some remarks and some questions, but... 00:35:39.370 --> 00:35:40.370 Yeah. 00:35:40.670 --> 00:35:41.536 Okay. 00:35:41.560 --> 00:35:45.250 In the presentation, I only have one question because I want to see if there is 00:35:45.251 --> 00:35:49.530 a confirmation of which the topic of this is. 00:35:49.531 --> 00:35:52.450 Are there any of these... 00:35:52.650 --> 00:35:56.250 I was surprised by the quantity of inscriptions dedicated to. 00:35:56.251 --> 00:36:00.450 Are all these inscriptions epigraphical inscriptions? 00:36:00.690 --> 00:36:02.370 Are some of them stature bases? 00:36:02.630 --> 00:36:07.250 Do we have any trace of inferior statutes located between them all? 00:36:23.910 --> 00:36:24.806 Yes. 00:36:24.830 --> 00:36:32.830 do not have a big amount of preserved portraits or the sanctuary of that. 00:36:33.180 --> 00:36:37.390 We only preserved more or less the inscription. 00:36:37.970 --> 00:36:41.010 Even that, for example, in the Tupoli Museum, we have 00:36:54.060 --> 00:36:57.890 more inscriptions than the sculpture. 00:36:58.190 --> 00:36:59.190 Thank you. 00:37:01.290 --> 00:37:04.550 Is milk the same as milk art? 00:37:05.790 --> 00:37:06.790 No. 00:37:07.430 --> 00:37:08.430 Milk as art? 00:37:08.570 --> 00:37:09.570 Yes. 00:37:11.090 --> 00:37:11.986 Maybe. 00:37:12.010 --> 00:37:13.370 There are some hypotheses. 00:37:16.430 --> 00:37:20.750 But we only have the name. 00:37:21.630 --> 00:37:24.850 You have an inscription. 00:37:25.030 --> 00:37:26.390 The translation was wrong. 00:37:26.770 --> 00:37:28.050 milk art was in the inscription. 00:37:30.530 --> 00:37:32.490 My question was about that. 00:37:33.400 --> 00:37:38.170 It is not linked to milk. 00:37:38.660 --> 00:37:39.670 It is linked to 00:37:50.550 --> 00:37:55.930 But you have here a link that we don't see sometimes expressed. 00:37:56.170 --> 00:37:58.387 I think this is interesting because it is one of the 00:37:58.388 --> 00:38:00.710 few cases in which milk art appears in this magna. 00:38:03.010 --> 00:38:08.270 It is not only about interpretation between local gods and Romans but also 00:38:08.950 --> 00:38:13.610 different ways of interpretation among Phoenician traditions going on. 00:38:18.710 --> 00:38:23.870 Regarding this, I was also surprised about the lack of Isis. 00:38:24.955 --> 00:38:30.071 You have the Serapis and in theory you have two of Isis 00:38:30.072 --> 00:38:34.670 but one is actually a debut reconstruction of Isis. 00:38:35.910 --> 00:38:40.150 But if you compare with Silvanus which is also absent, you will see that Silvanus 00:38:40.151 --> 00:38:43.714 appears actually with the military men in the 00:38:43.715 --> 00:38:46.890 center and in the branches of grain supply. 00:38:48.030 --> 00:38:51.670 So can be also linked with a kind of harbor was. 00:38:53.655 --> 00:38:56.920 In the sense that if you don't have the grain supply from 00:38:56.921 --> 00:39:00.970 Africa, it was not a supply distribution hub for the military. 00:39:01.630 --> 00:39:06.890 It was through Tunisia and from Letiz Magna many times or through Berenike and 00:39:08.230 --> 00:39:09.230 Sirene. 00:39:09.410 --> 00:39:14.510 So perhaps the lack of some of these kind of got is also the lack of networks 00:39:15.915 --> 00:39:23.430 because there is no need for people with specific religious interest to act in 00:39:23.431 --> 00:39:26.230 Letiz Magna because that economic interest is not that behind. 00:39:27.075 --> 00:39:29.410 So for instance, one of the is a Centurio. 00:39:29.510 --> 00:39:30.570 That is just going. 00:39:31.860 --> 00:39:35.710 And in Africa, we don't have a lot of and all of them are 00:39:47.370 --> 00:39:55.370 in the middle of interior city. 00:39:55.670 --> 00:39:59.890 But we can see there was a lot of religious activity with four monumental 00:39:59.891 --> 00:40:06.510 temples, but no inscription coming from the port except For the Dolly Kenyan one, 00:40:07.665 --> 00:40:14.630 I see this is represented in the Serapion, but she is not meant to... 00:40:15.370 --> 00:40:18.710 Let's say autonomous in the way that she is in other places. 00:40:20.040 --> 00:40:24.610 No clue, no evidence about the temple of Isis. 00:40:24.770 --> 00:40:30.490 I know, that's a question, but regarding Cyrene, for example, in the religious 00:40:31.050 --> 00:40:39.050 epigraphy of Cyrene, we do not have traces of some gods or persons coming from Leptis 00:40:39.051 --> 00:40:45.150 Magna, but in Leptis Magna, we only have one example of a person who has been in 00:40:46.110 --> 00:40:54.110 Cyrene and is the proprietor of Cretan Cyrene, in a dedication that entails at 00:40:54.111 --> 00:40:59.250 least six different religious churches and offices, but it's only a connection. 00:41:00.210 --> 00:41:04.590 In the search, of course, we've covered that. 00:41:06.520 --> 00:41:10.590 Yes, I think the absence is a pretty marked thing. 00:41:10.830 --> 00:41:12.290 Yeah, also the timeline, yeah. 00:41:12.630 --> 00:41:20.230 The thing is that, for instance, if there is no Isis inscriptions in Leptis 00:41:21.215 --> 00:41:28.990 Magna, we do have a sanctuary for Nilotic deities or Lysanthian deities or Isiak, 00:41:29.115 --> 00:41:30.770 the family against Isiaka. 00:41:30.771 --> 00:41:33.450 We are able to name that. 00:41:34.050 --> 00:41:38.629 But the temple, particularly for these kind of 00:41:38.630 --> 00:41:43.810 deities, has at least one or two devoted to Serapis. 00:41:45.125 --> 00:41:47.570 But the thing is that there is a nilometer. 00:41:49.170 --> 00:41:57.170 So there is no Isis explicitly meaning, but we are sure that it should exist, 00:41:57.550 --> 00:41:59.670 to be called, for all the games. 00:42:03.640 --> 00:42:10.990 The other thing is that perhaps it's a question for this afternoon's debate. 00:42:13.320 --> 00:42:17.170 I don't like the broader use of the term interpretatio. 00:42:18.770 --> 00:42:25.410 I don't know if you want to hear something now or leave that for terminal. 00:42:25.411 --> 00:42:27.890 What do you mean by broader use of interpretatio? 00:42:28.315 --> 00:42:30.026 I think we should keep it for this afternoon. 00:42:30.050 --> 00:42:31.050 Yeah, yeah. 00:42:33.400 --> 00:42:36.470 We take the war and we will debate. 00:42:38.134 --> 00:42:40.550 So, we have time for one more question. 00:42:42.410 --> 00:42:44.990 Well, if you are brief, you can vote. 00:42:45.350 --> 00:42:47.830 Mine was a short question, but not important. 00:42:50.290 --> 00:42:51.390 Mine is important. 00:42:54.635 --> 00:43:00.290 Thank you for showing the the inscription from Palmyra. 00:43:00.390 --> 00:43:05.250 This is fascinating because if we look at any typical coastal sea deity, 00:43:05.430 --> 00:43:06.430 it would be Poseidon. 00:43:06.925 --> 00:43:10.450 And elsewhere in the Near East, it appears on 00:43:10.451 --> 00:43:14.310 the coinage of Phoenician cities, coastal cities. 00:43:15.420 --> 00:43:19.100 Phileo Biblos labels him as the main god of 00:43:19.120 --> 00:43:21.970 Beirut on the coastal cities, so that all fits. 00:43:22.365 --> 00:43:28.570 And then in Palmyra, you can't be further from a coastal city than Palmyra, 00:43:28.690 --> 00:43:29.750 but Lossington with water. 00:43:30.344 --> 00:43:33.930 And here you can show, I mean, it's officially a bilingual, but the 00:43:34.350 --> 00:43:42.350 Aramaic has the primacy, and then there's this very Greek label, but some years ago 00:43:44.250 --> 00:43:51.670 it's not just the Greek, because the typical Poseidon image with the trident, 00:43:52.340 --> 00:43:57.870 so that we have no doubt that we talk about Poseidon, is put on an altar with 00:43:57.871 --> 00:44:05.690 three what we would describe as typically Palmyraian gods, a solar deity and a seat 00:44:05.691 --> 00:44:09.970 of Allah-like goddess and a so-called nomadic deity. 00:44:10.210 --> 00:44:13.346 And the fourth one is on an altar from the Cincinnati Art 00:44:13.347 --> 00:44:15.750 Museum, which I published with Luciana D'Urfo together. 00:44:16.410 --> 00:44:20.193 And the fourth image there is this Poseidon image, 00:44:20.194 --> 00:44:22.990 so really embedded in the Palmyraian divine world. 00:44:23.510 --> 00:44:31.210 But he also appears on one of the few mosaics found in Palmyra, which show the 00:44:32.230 --> 00:44:40.230 earth version of the Cassiopeia judgment, where Poseidon is the judge and the judge 00:44:40.231 --> 00:44:45.250 is Cassiopeia's claim that she is more beautiful than the Nereids. 00:44:45.600 --> 00:44:49.190 And again, in the classical mythology he is the raging sea god, typical. 00:44:49.680 --> 00:44:54.250 But then in Palmyra, and this is a theory by Charles Charles and Jeanine Baltique 00:44:54.625 --> 00:44:58.570 who have studied these mosaics, and the same scene appears on the mosaic 00:44:58.571 --> 00:45:04.850 from Palmyra, so that can then be later used, this inscription on the Orontes and 00:45:04.851 --> 00:45:11.042 Neopapos on Cyprus, where Cassiopeia wins the beauty contest 00:45:11.043 --> 00:45:14.850 and is crowned as victor in contrast to the classical myth. 00:45:15.280 --> 00:45:19.470 And the Poseidon figure there is not the raging sea god but a wise judge. 00:45:19.650 --> 00:45:25.990 The Baltes have given a neoplatonic interpretation of that, so you get the 00:45:26.870 --> 00:45:34.870 most typical sea god of all acting like, on this inscription and on the mosaics, 00:45:35.170 --> 00:45:38.610 not like a typical sea god. 00:45:38.770 --> 00:45:42.450 So it's a great case, I think, the Poseidon in Palmyra. 00:45:43.200 --> 00:45:46.050 Thank you, it's very interesting, the transformation of the god. 00:45:46.510 --> 00:45:47.510 Thank you. 00:45:48.660 --> 00:45:50.060 It wasn't really a question, sorry. 00:45:50.150 --> 00:45:53.550 Thank you very much to all of you.