Travertine. 54—68 CE. Inv. No. 125662.Rome, Roman National Museum, Baths of DiocletianPhoto by Ilya Shurygin
Funerary inscription of a bodyguard of Nero.
Travertine. 54—68 CE.
Rome, Roman National Museum, Baths of Diocletian
(Roma, Museo nazionale romano, Terme di Diocleziano).
| Tẹr[---], | |
| Ner(onis) Claud(i) Caẹ(saris) | |
| Aug(usti) corp(oris) cust(os), | |
| dec(uria) Prudentis, | |
| 5 | nat(ione) Bataus, |
| vix(it) ann(is) XXXVII. | |
| H(ic) s(itus) e(st). Posuerunt | |
| Sollemnis, optio, | |
| et Reginus, dec(uria) Prudentis, | |
| 10 | heredes eius, ex collegio |
| Germanorum. |
Ter… a bodyguard of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus, of Prudens’ decuria, of the the nation of Bataves, lived for 37 years. He rests here. Adjutant Sollemnis and Reginus from Prudens’ decuria, his heirs from the association of Germans, erected (this gravestone).
Funerary steles of soldiers and bodyguards of Nero
The funerary steles are dedicated to soldiers of different corps stationed in Rome: the Praetorian Guard «the imperial guard» and the urbaniciani or cohortes urbanae troops of the police force. The series ends with the steles of Nero’s Imperial German Bodyguard — Germani corporis custodes — who were so called because they were originally recruited from the robust northern populations. Slaves at the time of Augustus, during the Neronian period the custodes were classed as free foreigners with a military-style organisation but without ever attaining the status of a real military force.
Involved in the death of Nero, they were dissolved by Galba.
Travertine from various areas of Rome and suburbs and the Via Portuensis. Neronian period (54—
AE 1952, 146
Bellen H. Die germanische Leibwache der roemischen Kaiser des julisch-claudischen Hauses. Mainz-Wiesbaden, 1981. S. 110, nr. 13.
Priuli S. // Museo Nazionale Romano. I. Le sculture. Vol. 7. 1. Roma, 1984. P. 118, nr. 29c.
© Text of the inscription: Epigraphic Database Roma.
© Commentary: the museum label.
© 2017. Translation: Olga Lyubimova.
