Le Génie des Ambissovices (CIL, XIII, 100*)
In: Aquitania : une revue inter-régionale d'archéologie, Jg. 35 (2019), Heft 1, S. 7-18
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Zugriff:
CIL, XIII, 100* is an inscription included among the falsae inscriptions of the Nitiobroges (fig. 1). It was recently identified among the collections of the Bordeaux Archaeological Society housed today at the Musée d’Aquitaine in Bordeaux. The text is engraved on the cubical base of the bust of a beardless man, front-facing, bare shoulders. It is enclosed in a dovetail frame (fig. 2). The block, carved out of limestone, was discovered at Aiguillon, in 1825 or a few years before, in an unknown place in the suburb of Saint-Côme, a former parish, in a filled-in well. Examination of the block and its inscription leaves no doubt as to its authenticity. Dimensions (in cm) : Height 52 ; Length 24.5 ; Width 24 ; height of the bust : 28 ; Height of the base : 24. Epigraphic surface (inside the frame) : H 7 ; L 11.5. The text consists of four lines, capitals relatively well engraved considering the very small dimensions of the characters (height of the letters 1 to 2 cm) and the low density of the material (fig. 3). SEX IVL ACCEPTVS G E N I O A M B I S S O V I C V M O IBONN The meaning of the first three lines is clear : Sextus Iulius Acceptus to the Genius of the Ambissovices .... The ethnic Ambissouices, in the nominative plural has the genitive plural in -um (see Lemouices, Lemouicum). The fourth line, in smaller characters, is placed in the lower margin of the text. One should probably read OIBONN, whose meaning escapes me and does not allow a complete explanation for the text. Dating around the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries can be proposed from the hairstyle of the genius which evokes the emperor Trajan and the fashion adopted by many of his contemporaries (fig. 4). The bust of Saint-Côme is that of a deity, as indicated by the bare shoulders of the character. The text gives his name : the Genius of Ambissovices, the latter constituting a community on the territory of the Nitiobroges ; he personifies this community and is at the same time the tutelary deity, a kind of guardian angel. A major interest of this text is therefore to give name of this community which inhabited the site of Aiguillon-Saint-Côme and which was halfway between Bordeaux and Toulouse, between Le Mas d’Agenais and Agen, between Sos and Eysses (Excisum, northern district of the municipality of Villeneuve-sur-Lot). It was a station, anonymous until now, on the Ténarèze, an ancient road known by this name since the Middle Ages, which connected Sos and Eysses (fig. 5). The importance of this agglomeration came from the fact that it was in contact with two confluents, that of the Garonne and Baïse, and especially that of the Garonne and Lot ; if the ethnicity has a geographical meaning that relates to this location, as one might think, one will preferably attach the status of uicus to the community, and attribute to it the name uicus Ambissouicum (gen. pl.). Such a name would explain the absence of the complement uici for Genio in the inscription, in order to avoid a redundancy ; this would reinforce the hypothesis of a uicus. of the Garonne and Baïse, and especially that of the Garonne and Lot ; if the ethnicity has a geographical meaning that relates to this location, as one might think, one will preferably attach the status of uicus to the community, and attribute to it the name uicus Ambissouicum (gen. pl.). Such a name would explain the absence of the complement vici for Genio in the inscription, in order to avoid a redundancy ; this would reinforce the hypothesis of a vicus. Local archeology is far from negligible ; a relevant analysis was made some twenty years ago by Brieuc Fages. An agglomeration developed during the protohistoric period, especially at La Gravisse ; for some remains of the Roman Empire village, we can still see the large retaining wall of the Caves de Lunac, and La Tourasse, former mausoleum ( ?) north of Saint-Côme (fig. 6 and 7). The Romanesque church of Saint-Côme (fig. 8) is set on a large terrace whose retaining wall to the west is from Roman times (fig. 9). The remains of ancient architecture, capitals and columns, discovered in 1896 when constructing the foundations of the bell tower of the Saint-Côme church (fig. 10), may indicate the probable presence, near or very close, of a paleochristian sanctuary. As an hypothesis, it can be assumed that this could have been the successor of a pagan sanctuary to the Genius of the community. All in all, there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this ex-voto. It was nevertheless classified in1899 among the falsae in the CIL. This was due to the variety of successive editions of this block and the lack of information on it since its discovery upto the present day. Before the rediscovery of the original block, knowledge of this inscription came entirely from Alexandre Chaudruc de Crazannes (1782-1862), prolific scholar and well known especially in Agenais and Saintonge, his homeland. He was the only one to have seen it around 1825 and was the sole guarantor of its existence. However, from 1825 to 1860 he introduced variants on the one hand into the origin of the discovery, and on the other into the text, which he misunderstood (fig. 11) ; these were aggravated by other local scholars (fig. 12). It was these successive variations that decided the epigraphists to declare the inscription false. This text presupposes the presence in the vicinity of Saint-Côme of a sanctuary of some magnitude dedicated to the Genius of the Ambissovices : erected to the extreme south of the agglomeration, it dominated the alluvial plain of the Garonne. The rehabilitation of this inscription is an opportunity to recall the role of Aiguillon in the Agenais road network. This makes it possible to avoid considering Chaudruc de Crazannes as a forger ; self-taught in archeology as well as in epigraphy, but an enlightened amateur very representative of his social rank and his era.
Une inscription découverte vers 1825 à Saint-Côme, à l’extrémité méridionale de la commune d’Aiguillon (Lot-et-Garonne), est un ex-voto au Génie d’une communauté jusqu’ici inconnue, les Ambissovices. Pour des raisons qui tiennent à sa transmission au XIXe s., elle avait été rangée parmi les falsae du CIL, XIII. Son étude permet d’établir son authenticité.
Titel: |
Le Génie des Ambissovices (CIL, XIII, 100*)
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Maurin, Louis |
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Zeitschrift: | Aquitania : une revue inter-régionale d'archéologie, Jg. 35 (2019), Heft 1, S. 7-18 |
Veröffentlichung: | nL: PERSEE, 2019 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
ISSN: | 0758-9670 (print) |
DOI: | 10.3406/aquit.2019.1616 |
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