[image ALT: Much of my site will be useless to you if you\'ve got the images turned off!]
mail: Bill Thayer [image ALT: Cliccare qui per una pagina di aiuto in Italiano.]
Italiano 		[Link to a series of help pages]
Help 		[Link to the next level up]
Up 		[Link to my homepage]
Home

123‑124 A.D.: Hadrian Restores the Flaminia

An inscription of his (CIL XI.6619 = ILS 5857),
now embedded in the archway of the medieval gate of Massa Martana;
obviously found somewhere else and moved: the question is, how far?

[image ALT: zzz]

This inscription can be read clearly on
this larger photo (400K)
on the Do‑it-yourself Epigraphy site.

Transcribed and expanded:
1



5

[image ALT: a blank space]
[image ALT: a blank space]

10
IMPERATOR CAESAR
DIVI TRAIA
NI PARTHICI FILIVS
DIVI NERVAE NEPOS
TRAIANVS HADRI
ANVS AVGVSTVS PONTIFEX
MAXIMVS TRIBVNICIA POTESTATE VIII
CONSVL III PROCOS VI
AM PROLAPSAM
NOVA SVBSTRVCTIONE
RESTAVRAVIT
[image ALT: a blank space]
Translated:
1
2‑3
4
5‑6
6‑7
7
8
11
9
10
The Emperor Caesar
son of the deified Trajan victor of the Parthians,
grandson of the deified Nerva,
Trajan Hadrian Augustus,
Chief Priest,
vested with the tribunician power for the 8th time,
three times consul, proconsul,
restored
the road that had subsided
by providing it with a new foundation.

You avoided the temptation to read PROCOS VI as proconsul for the 6th time, I hope! Note that the numbers have bars over them: VI is the beginning of VIAM, road.

The date is easy: Hadrian's eighth tribunician term was from Dec. 10, 123 to Dec. 9, 124.

The road in question is very likely the Flaminia east of here, probably within a mile; I interpret prolapsa and substructio to mean not that there was a sharp cave-in at some point which required a single substructure, but rather a general subsidence of the roadbed which required relaying all of it over some unspecified distance. (Although I've walked much of the area and it doesn't look particularly swampy to me, we're less than 3 km from the church of S. Maria in Pantano: and the Italian word pantano does mean "marsh".)

    See also the Sep. 11, 1998 entry of my diary.

Images with borders lead to more information. The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.)

[image ALT: A schematic clickmap of the via Flaminia.]
UP TO: [Onsite link]
Massa Martana 		[Link to the Umbria homepage]
Umbria 		[Link to the Umbria homepage]
Italy 		[Link to the Umbria homepage]
Europe 		[image ALT: If active, this link takes you to Thayer's Gazetteer.]
Gazetteer 		[Link to my homepage]
Home
SEE
ALSO: 		[Onsite link]
Roman Umbria 		[image ALT: Link to the homepage of my Latin inscriptions subsite]
Latin
Inscriptions 		[image ALT: Link to the homepage of the Roman Gazetteer section]
Roman
Gazetteer 		[Link to the LacusCurtius homepage]
LacusCurtius
[Onsite link]
Via Flaminia 		Next stop on the Flaminia:
towards Rome
towards Ariminum

A page or image on this site is in the public domain only if its URL has a total of one *asterisk.
If the URL has two **asterisks, the item is copyright someone else, and used by permission or fair use.
If the URL has none the item is © Bill Thayer. See my copyright page for details and contact information.

Page updated: 16 Jun 04 [image ALT: Link to a help screen on how wto use clickmaps of Roman roads on my site.] An inactive area of this clickmap. If you click here, you will stay exactly where you are.