Prosopographic notes on roman mining in Moesia superior: The families of wealthy immigrants in the mining districts of Moesia superior

Abstract

The author analyzes epigraphic evidence (fresh or based on documents the reading and/or interpretation of which has been revised in sections I-V) to show that Roman mining in Moesia Superior, under the Principate, was largely based on private - frequently senatorial - financial investment. I An unpublished inscription (IInd cent.?) from the Kosmaj argentariae discloses two Publii Fundanii, obviously members of the same family which was to produce P. Fundanius Eutyches, a colonus of the near-by Rudnik mines early in Septimius Severus' reign (IMS I 168). It is perhaps no simple coincidence that, long before, a P. Fundanius Hospes was active in the ferrariae of Noricum (CIL III 4915 a, Magdalensberg); as is well known, the involvement of wealthy Romans in the mining business tended to be hereditary. II The set of Dardanian lead-ingots found at the wreck site of Caesarea Palaestinae registers interesting stamps (Ann. ép. 1999, 1683; Domitianic). Their testimony can be understood, on a number of points, more completely than has been done by previous editors (I shall discuss the ingots' epigraphic problems in a separate article). Here, let us note that the stamp (d) P.T.R., is best read P(ublius) T(arius) R(ufus) (the genitive construction being possible, too). Like several other families from Liburnia and Nedinum itself (e.g. the Quinti Gnorii), the Tarii Rufi (there seems to be independent evidence that they employed the praenomen Publius [CIL III 2877] among other praenomina) will have invested their money in the mining of Illyricum/Upper Moesia. This state of affairs probably went back to L. Tarius Rufus, cos. 16 BC. III As briefly noted by A. Evans (and more or less forgotten by later scholars), there was a Roman mining region in northwest Dardania (Mokra Gora - Suva Planina), which has left traces in the toponymy (the eloquent Serbian place-name "Rudnik"), archaeological material (including "traces of the ancient workings "), and inscriptions (the mining aspects of which remained unobserved). The presence of rich people/bearers of significant gentilicia should be pointed out here; it tends to be overlooked by the epigraphists. A Greek inscription from Rudnik (Spomenik 71 [1931] 92 no. 215) records a Fulcinius (line 1), who probably originated in Macedonia and may have been a distant successor to the Fulcinius figuring as quaestor in the province's Fasti for 148 BC. The economic expansion of the Fulcinii from Macedonia to the mining districts in the north obviously went via Scupi (IMS VI 121). Another inscription of the same provenance was erected by a Paconius (Spomenik 71[1931] 92 no. 213, with photograph), certainly connected with the city élite of S(plonum?) and Risinium, perhaps also with merchants from Delos and Thessalonice. IV The honorary base of Gamicus conductor an(nis) X, lib(ertus) Pont[io(rum)], found at Agio Pnevma not far from Siris (Ann. ép. 1986, 629, slightly modified), is of double interest. On the one hand, it provides an instructive piece of evidence on iron-mines in the south of Macedonia. (A number of facts tend to indicate their role in the matter: Gamicus' title of conductor, his being a freedman of the Pontii [? to be identified with the senatorial family of the Pontii from Dardania, whose social success, it is generally assumed, must have owed much to the mines in the neighbourhood of Ulpiana], and the mineral wealth of the Strymon region) If Gamicus is really taken to have belonged to the Dardanian branch of the Pontii as their libertus, i.e. the prominent family owning i.a. the ferrariae in Macedonia, their interest in iron may be attributed to the intensity of their need for tools, typical of people possessing mines as well as latifundia. On the other hand, despite the silence of scholars on the subject, it seems that the Gamicus of Ann. ép. 1986, 629, must be identified with the Gamicus of the Mursan dedication reading [I.]O.M./[pr]o salute/C. Iul. Agatho/pi c(onductoris)/ f(errariarum) Panno5/niar(um) itemq. provinciar(um) / transmarinar(um) / Gamicus ark(arius) / v.s.l.m. (Fitz Verwaltung Pannoniens, 740 f. no. 2; early Severan). Two circumstances favour the identification - the comparative rarity of the name Gamicus and the fact that the conductor as well as the arcarius served in ironmines (under the regime of conductoriate). Probably, Gamicus was a slave of Agathopus' Iulii first; after their being replaced by the Pontii at the head of a part (doubtless the south-eastern one) of the complex of the iron-mines formerly administered by Agathopus, he was taken over by the Pontii (? related to the Dardanian family of that name which has just been discussed) who manumitted him. Writing of the personnel of the portorium Illyrici (whose case naturally, was similar), P. Ørsted noted an analogous practice: "…new conductores bought the slaves of the departing conductor" (Roman Imperial Economy…340). If the foregoing deductions prove accurate, they can lead to a number of comments concerning the administrative and prosopographic history of the iron-mines in Illyricum. V In the last section of the article, the inscriptions from the Scupian dossier of the (senatorial) Libonii are discussed (IMS VI 27, 75, 167 ¡now lost¿, and 224 ¡discovered at Lopate nr. Kumanovo¿). New readings and interpretation of CIL III 8227 = IMS VI 167 (with R. Ardevan's suggestions) have been proposed. We are led to the conclusion that the Libonii constituted another senatorial family with estates in Moesia Superior (Dardania) that sought profit from mining. This would explain the two interesting features of the text of IMS VI 167 which have been overlooked/misinterpreted by previous editors. First, the gentile Libonii (not Sibonii or Sidonii) can be seen among the lettertraces of lines 1 and 6. Second, a mining title occurs in lines 4/5: (procurator, vilicus sim) arg(entariarum) (?) / [D]ar[d(anicarum)]. Palaeographical and onomastic considerations sustain the former point (note that IMS VI 27 and 167 share the cognomina Maxima /Maximus and Severus). The latter point recalls the fact that the Kumanovo territory, to the north of Scupi, is known for its Roman mines of argentiferous lead; for Lopate, where the Le/ibonian inscription IMS VI 224 was found, see TIR K 34,VIII d.