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SLAB WITH AN INSCRIPTION AND A RELIEF DEPICTING A MARRIED COUPLE,
MARBLE
3rd century
Finding site: in the structure and the ruins of the northern wall of the spring pool (excavation in 2011 and 2012)
Height: 54 cm, width: 40.5 cm,
thickness: 6–7, height of letters: 2.7–3 cm
The characteristics of the faces delineated in the relief make it safe to assume that these are portraits. The treatment of stone and the method of surface modelling resemble the technique implemented in wood processing, which probably originated from the local tradition. The relief portrays a married couple in a characteristic posture known from the Roman stelae.
The size of the relief and the inscription, which features names in the nominative case, in the absence of any kind of wording that would include a dedication or a vow, classify the relief as the type of private or semi-public portrait of a secular nature. The nomen gentile Aurelius allows for the speculation that these were free people who acquired Roman citizenship during the reign of Emperor Caracalla after the sovereign had granted, in 212, Roman citizenship to all free men in the Roman Empire by means of an official edict (Constitutio Antoniniana).
Should this be the case, it is possible that the scroll which the husband is holding in his hand symbolises the acquisition of citizenship. However, another issue has remained unresolved, and that is the married couple’s portrait turning up by the spring pool: were the pair donors of a sanctuary building, or was this, for some other reason, their way of marking their visit to the health resort?