The Scroll and Codex on Funerary Steles in the Upper Moesian Limes

Abstract

The paper investigates the meaning and different context that the scroll (rotulus, volumen) and codex could have on the reliefs on one group of tombstones from Singidunum, Viminacium and Vinceia. The scroll is shown in the hand of the portrayed deceased as an attribute. A scroll appears as an attribute of P. Aelius Dionysius (IMS I 35), a veteran, ex-signifer of Legion IV Flavia, and T. Baebius Eutiches (Lupa 5431), an Augustalis of municipii Aelium Viminacium, and of other men about whom no more precise data exist. The scroll also appears as an attribute of the two women of the hospita Domitia Ursa and Serenia Quarta (IMS I 52). The scroll and the codex were also shown within three scenes that referred to the occupation of the deceased. The scroll is shown in the hand of a speculator (IMS II 106) in a scene of traveling in an open car (rheda), also is shown in the hand of a sacral lictor next to sella curulis (IMS II 73) while both the scroll and the codex are shown in the scene of counting money “Kontorszene” (Lupa 6809). The aim of this paper is to examine the role of these manuscripts as an attribute of the deceased, both in the portrait itself and in the scene related to his occupation. In addition to expressing belonging to the educated and cultural layer and emphasizing social status, an attempt was made to understand the more specific context that the scroll and the codex could have in the integrated system of iconography and inscriptions on these tombstones of the Upper Moesian Limes.