ZACCAGNINO - The Missorium of Ardabur Aspar

nuova serie

Rivista del Dipartimento di Scienze dellantichitSezione di Archeologia classica, etrusco-italica, cristiana e medioevale

Fondatore: giulio q. giglioli

Direzione Scientifica

maria paola baglione, gilda bartoloni, luciana drago, enzo lippolis, laura michetti, gloria olcese,

domenico palombi, maria grazia picozzi, franca tagliettiDirettore responsabile: gilda bartoloni

Redazione:franca taglietti, fabrizio santi

Vol. LXIII - n.s. II, 22012

LERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER - ROMA

ISBN 978-88-8265-655-3

ISSN 0391-8165

COPYRIGHT 2012 - SAPIENZA UNIVERSIT DI ROMAAut. del Trib. di Roma n. 104 del 4 aprile 2011

Volume stampato con contributo della Sapienza Universit di Roma

Archeologia classica : rivista dellIstituto di archeologia dellUniversit di Roma. - Vol. 1 (1949)- . - Roma : Istituto di archeologia, 1949- . - Ill. ; 24 cm. - Annuale. - Il complemento del titolo varia. - Dal 1972: Roma: LERMA di Bretschneider. ISSN 0391-8165 (1989)

CDD 20. 930.l05

Comitato Scientifico

pierre gros, sybille haynes, tonio hlscher, mette moltesen, stephan verger

Il Periodico adotta un sistema di Peer-Review

INDICE DEL VOLUME LXII

articoli

p. 7 55

455

169 277

345 127

297

381 223 239

419

acconcia v., dercole v., La ripresa delle ricerche a Fossa (2010). LAbruzzo tra il bronzo finale e la fine dellet del ferro: proposta di periodizzazione sulla base dei contesti funerari ........................................................................

bartoloni g. et Al., Veio, Piazza dArmi: la fossa del cane .............................bocci pacini p., gambaro c., la dispersione del celebre museo de Padri

Certosini. Dal convento di Santa Maria degli Angeli alle collezioni di Vien-na, Roma, Parigi e Monaco .............................................................................

cali l.m., Dalla polis alla citt murata. Limmagine delle fortificazioni nella societ ellenistica ............................................................................................

gianfrotta p.a., Da Baia agli horrea del Lucrino: aggiornamenti ....................granino cecere m.g., Gallerie familiari: tra archeologia, epigrafia e antropo-

logia .................................................................................................................landi a., Forme e strutture del culto di Gaia nel mondo greco ...........................laubry n., zevi f., Inscriptions dOstie et phnomne associatif dans lEmpire

romain: nouveaux documents et nouvelles considrations .............................magaa J..d., Los costes de la arquitectura romana: el Capitolio de Volbilis

(Mauretania Tingitana) ...................................................................................murgia e., Il bothros di Acelum e i rituali di fondazione ....................................roscini e., Considerazioni su una base iscritta da Acquasparta (Terni) ..............zaccagnino c., bevan g., gabov a., The Missorium of Ardabur Aspar: new

considerations on its archaeological and historical contexts ...........................

indice del volume lxiii

p. 619 537

561 637 509

593 485 575

683 672

662

688

657

680

669

694

705

NOTE E DISCUSSIONI

ambrogi a., Frammento di rilievo con la disputa per il possesso del tripode .....corsi a., Copricapi e bende rituali nelle ceramiche italiote e siceliote ...............de caro v., Ceramica a vernice nera da Elba Fucens: contributo allo studio dei

bolli nominali ..................................................................................................fileri e., Osservazioni sul cosiddetto Priapus Gallinaceus ..............................guzzo p.g., Fibule e identit a Pithecusa .............................................................meloni s., Monumentum quod videtur fuisse familiae liberorum Neronis Drusi.

Un capitoletto di CIL, VI da riconsiderare ......................................................tabolli J., Identit nella memoria a Narce durante la prima et del Ferro ......... tucci p.l., La controversa storia della Porticus Aemilia ...................................

RECENSIONI E SEGNALAZIONI

AA.VV., Tetti di terracotta. La decorazione fittile tra Etruria e Lazio in et arcaica (f. buranelli) .........................................................................

DEnnion au Val Saint-Lambert. Le verre souffl-moul (l. taborelli) ......filostrato maggiore, Immagini. Introduzione, traduzione e commento di

letizia abbondanza, prefazione di maurizio harari; filostrato maggiore, La Pinacoteca, a cura di giuseppe pucci, traduzione di giovanni lombardo (l. faedo) .............................................................

frederiksen r., Greek City Walls of the Arcaic Period, 900-480 BC (l.m. cali) .................................................................................................

koch g. (hrsg.), Akten des Symposiums des Sarkophag-Corpus 2001. Marburg, 2.-7. Juli 2001 (m. papini) ........................................................

koch l.c., Die Glasbgelfibeln des 8. und 7. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. aus Etrurien. Ein Beitrag zur eisenzeitlichen Glastechnik und zu den Be-stattungssitten des Orientalizzante (a. naso) ...........................................

landwehr ch. (con alexandridis a., dimas st., trillmich w.), Die rmischen Skulpturen von Caesarea Mauretaniae, Band IV. Portrtplastik, (L. bianchi) ..................................................................................................

melandri g., LEt del Ferro a Capua. Aspetti distintivi del contesto culturale e suo inquadramento nelle dinamiche di sviluppo dellItalia protostorica (V. bellelli) ...........................................................................

Pubblicazioni ricevute ...........................................................................................

ArchCl, LXIII, 2012, pp. 419-454

THE MISSORIUM OF ARDABUR ASPAR: NEW CONSIDERATIONS ON ITS ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND

HISTORICAL CONTEXTS

The missorium of Ardabur Aspar, made as a gift to commemorate the western consulship of Flavius Ardabur Aspar in 434 A.D., stands as one of most significant pieces of silver plate from Late Antiquity (Figs. 1-2)1. The piece is the only surviv-ing instance of a largitio plate given by a consul on the occasion of his appoint-ment, of the sort that Symmachus famously mentioned giving when he held games for his sons quaestorship in 393 and then again for his praetorian games in 4012. While many consular diptychs in ivory have been preserved, and nineteen examples of imperial largitio plates have come down to us, the missorium of Ardabur Aspar, given to an unknown, but surely important, recipient, is unique in this respect3. Despite its tremendous significance this missorium has not commanded the schol-arly attention that the larger missorium of Theodosius has4. Not only has this mis-sorium not received a full publication, but the bibliography that refers to it repeats errors that date back to the time of its discovery in Tuscany in the eighteenth century, and to its first scholarly treatments in the nineteenth. The present study intends to remedy this situation, at least partially, analyzing details pertaining to the discovery of the missorium and to document the dish using Reflectance Transforma-tion Imaging (RTI), a powerful three-dimensional photographic technique that can reveal fine surface detail in the silver plate.

Awareness of the missorium seems not to have penetrated the larger historical scholarship on imperial politics in the fifth century; the significance of Aspars western consulship and the plate that commemorates it does not typically find its

1 Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. no. 2588. Diameter 42 cm; weight 1900 gr. The dish was first published by Bracci 1771. See also Milani 1912, vol. I, p. 172 and vol. II, p. 30, tav. 132; Capolavori e restauri, p. 241f, n. 19; Mensa, pp. 30-32, n. 3; Ori e argenti, p. 17 n. 235; Painter 1991, pp. 73-80; caM-eron 1998, p. 386; GrassiGli 2003, p. 525; leader-newBy 2004, pp. 46-7, fig. 118.

2 Quaestorian games: Ep. ii.81; vii.76 and ix.119-20. Praetorian games: Ep. v.56. For an important discus-sion of Symmachus gifts see caMeron 1982, pp. 126-129; id. 1992, pp. 178-85.

3 For discussion of the missorium in Late Antiquity, see Johns 1990, pp. 28-43. 4 See Martn alMaGro-GorBea, lvarez Martnez, Blzquez Martnez, rovira 2000. See

also effenBerGer 2001, pp. 97-108.

Figs. 1-2. florence, National Archaeological Museum. The missorium un-der axial lighting (above) and under raking light (below). (Permis-sion of Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana).

the MissoriuM of ardaBur asPar 421

way into accounts of the fifth century. The scene that the missorium depicts raises a number of important historical issues. How could an eastern general of barbarian origins, already advanced along with his family members in the imperial hierarchy, come to enjoy a western consulship? While the fact of Aspars consulship was never in dispute, the missorium draws attention to the relationship between the partes imperii under the Theodosian empire. The degree to which Aspar, an Alan and an Arian Christian, could be assimilated to Roman norms, at least iconograph-ically as much as in the case of the better known ivory consular dyptich of Stilicho, is remarkable5. The dish stands as monument to the degree to which the West was beholden to the richer and more stable East, and its long-serving emperor Theodo-sius II. The role of Aspar and his family would illustrate Eastern dominance even more dramatically when they selected the emperor Marcian without consultation with Valentinian III, and then again with Marcians successor Leo. The missorium is an early symbol of precisely this power and the dynastic aspirations of this eastern military family, the sorts of aspirations that are usually associated with the Western empire in the fifth century6.

C.Z., G.B.

the Plate and its decoration

The missorium of Aspar does not rank as the heaviest or largest of Late Antique silver plates, but it is still a very significant piece at 42 cm in diameter and about 3600 gr. in its current incomplete state7. As Alan Cameron has suggested, the mis-sorium was not analogous with the smaller two-pound plates Symmachus boasts of handing out so liberally on the occasion of his sons promotion8. Rather, the mis-

5 volBach 1976, n. 63, pl. 35.6 oflynn 1983. 7 Under the foot of the missorium of Theodosius there is this inscription: POC LI N MET. Accord-

ing to delBrueck 1929, p. 235 the inscription should be read as ROC(tou) LI (trun) N(=50) MET(allou). This is equivalent to 50 lbs i.e.16.372 kg, considering that the pound under Constantine was 327.45 grams. In ManGo 1994, pp. 45-48 are listed the following weights:Hunting plate 8873 gr.; Meleager plate 8606 gr.; Achilles plate 11786 gr.; Theodosius Madrid 15350 gr. (obj. incomplete). Some scholars have noticed that the weight of plates given in official occasions generally is equivalent to a pound or its multiples.The dish of Valentinian from Geneva is 1.050 gr.; the bowls of Licinius (The Munich Treasure) are between 315 and 323 gr.; the plates with Constantius II from Kerch 634.7 gr., the plate with mounted emperor from Kerch (Constan-tius II?) 599 gr. The plates from the Esquiline Treasure are 409.1 gr. The weights of Late Antique Silver plates has been usefully summarized in hoBBs 2010, pp. 24-33.

8 caMeron 1982, p. 182. The scholar (ibid., note 35) plausibly suggests that many of the smaller largitio plates may have been melted down during their owners lifetime to produce yet more gifts as the occasion demanded.

422 c. zaccaGnino - G. Bevan - a. GaBov

sorium of Aspar was probably made in relatively smaller numbers and given out to only the most important personages. Metallurgical analysis showed that the silver was extracted from lead bearing minerals, much like the coinage of the time and may, in fact, have been produced by melting down worn coins9.

The dish, decorated in relief, has a cylindrical foot and was originally supplied with a vertical rim (Fig. 3), badly damaged and therefore removed soon after its dis-

9 Mensa, pp. 30ff: 950 thousandths of silver, 40 thousandths of copper, traces of lead. Capolavori e restauri, p. 241.

Fig. 3. Braccis drawing and profiles of other late antique dishes (from Musso 1983, figs. b-c).


covery10. In the correspondence between the conservator Cosimo Siries and the direc-tor of the Uffizi Gallery Jacopo Querci the rim was already missing and the footring was damaged11. In one of his reports, Siries wrote that the dish was perhaps folded when it was found because it had some old breaks and it exhibited two parallel cracks, likely signs of a past straightening. The original rim, according to Siries, was likely damaged by someone who tried to unfold the dish12. According to Baccani (the account of which will be dealt with infra) the finders deliberately broke the object to determine which metal they were made from. As a part of the first conservation treatment in the Uffizi, around the rim was put a frame of brass, which gave to the dish the aspect of a shield13. This frame was removed after a restoration in the 1980s14.

All around the outer edge of the dish there is a band filled with an inscription. The knurl of the letters of the inscription indicates that they were decorated with niello. Starting from a cross at top centre it runs as follows15:

FL(avius) ARDABUR ASPAR VIR INLUSTRIS COM(es) ET MAG(ister) MILI-TUM ET CONSUL ORDINARIUS.

In addition to the relief, decorative elements are accomplished through finely applied chasing in the metal that creates stippling to suggest folds and patterns on textiles, as well as subtle decorative elements such as bracelets. The central area of decoration shows the consul Ardabur Aspar, seated on a cushioned throne with lion legs, and his young son standing, with the inscription ARDABUR IUNIOR PRE-TOR16. The throne is on an elevated platform that is decorated with a band of waves, below which squares alternate to circles, clearly suggestive of a woven fabric (Fig. 4). The upper surface of the platform is decorated with parallel dotted lines.These features were mostly clearly brought out with RTI, although the original illustration of the plate did indicate some of the decorations.

Ardabur Aspar, bearded and wearing a tunic and a toga, holds up in his right hand the mappa17, and in his left a sceptre surmounted by two small busts of the

10 Bracci 1771, p. LXIII.11 Archive of the Uffizi Gallery, Filza II, year 1769-70, Doc. 72. According to Siries the rim had been

recently removed without much care.12 See also fileti Mazza, toMasello 1999, p. 35.13 Bracci 1771 in fact called it clipeo, i.e. shield, because the dish was different from other silver dishes

known to him.14 Mensa, p. 32. 15 CIL, XI 2637 = ILS, 1299. Listed and described in eck, Pack 1981, p. 150 n. 7. 16 caMeron 1984, p. 169: Ardabur is styled here iunior, the only time in his long career that included his

own consulship in 447, precisely in order to distinguish him from his grandfather. PLRE II, s.v. Ardabur iunior 1, pp. 135-137. Ardabur iunior had two brothers: Iulius Patricius 15 (PLRE II, pp. 842-43) and Herminericus (PLRE II, p. 549).

17 For the mappa on the consular diptychs, see caMeron 1998, p. 399; olovsdotter 2005, pp. 88-90.


two reigning emperors, Theodosius II and Valentinian III18. His son also wears a tunic and a toga, also holds a mappa raised in his left hand, and uses his right to salute to the consul. Above them there are two medallions containing the busts of his father Ardabur, consul in 427, and his relative Plintha, consul in 419 (see below), with adjoining inscriptions19. Between the imagines clipeatae there is a curtain, the presence of which indicates that the two men are already dead20.Both deceased consuls also carry scepters with the busts of the then reigning emperors on top.

Aspar and his son are flanked by two city goddesses, both of whom hold the fasces21. In this sense, the city goddesses serve as the consuls lictors. It would appear that the missorium of Aspar is the first representation of the city goddesses serving in this capacity22. On the left of the missorium a figure clearly identifiable as Roma wears a short chiton, which leaves her right breast bared, a paludamentum, a sword-belt, and an Attic helmet with three crests23. On her feet are high-laced military boots, the soles of which are clearly indicated, with bare toes (Fig. 5). The goddess holds with the left hand a globe and the fasces with her right. A wreath decorates the standard. She wears a bracelet on her right wrist and a second one on her upper arm, while a single string of pearls hangs around her neck (Fig. 6).

That both of the city goddesses have fasces in their hands, is a fact that Olovs-dotter has explained as a way of compensating for the loss of the triumphal toga as a result of the consuls having taken the office outside of Rome, although there is no positive evidence to back-up this assertion24. The presence of the city god-desses as a couple might be influenced by an eastern practice, but it seems clear that in the earliest phase of the late antique consular iconography they were not established as formal conventions yet25. The iconographic similarities between the diptych of Halberstadt, generally ascribed to Constantius III26, and that of Basilius to the Ardabur dish might be the result of another feature common to all three. All of the honorands had been recruited in military expeditions against barbarian usurp-

18 About the size differentiations of the busts on consular sceptres see olovsdotter 2005, pp. 74-75.19 Plintha was a comes in the east in 418 (Marcell. coM. Chron, s.a. 418). PLRE II, s.v. Fl. Plintha, pp.

892-893. For Jones 1964, vol. 2, pp. 1104-1105 n.18. Plintha must have been a close relative of Aspars but his exact relationship is in doubt. Cf. deMandt 1986, p. 116. See also scharf 1993, pp. 213-23. The other figure is Aspars father: PLRE II, s.v. Fl. Ardabur 3, pp. 137-138. Ardabur was MVM east, 424-25, and consul in 427.

20 Painter 1991, p. 75.21 caMeron 1985, p. 140 points out that Roma is not properly to be considered a city Tyche.22 caMeron, schauer 1982, p. 134, following delBrueck 1929, pp. 154-156 n. 35. 23 For the iconography of Rome see e. di filiPPo Balestrazzi, s.v. Roma, in LIMC VIII, pp. 1048-

1068. For the origins of the goddess Roma, see Mellor 1981, pp. 1011-1016. 24 See olovsdotter 2005, p. 85.25 Ibid., 99-100.26 caMeron 1998, pp. 384-403 proposed an eastern issue for the diptych and an identification of the con-

sul as Fl. Constans. See also olovsdotter 2005, pp. 99-100.


Figs. 4-5. RTI Enhancement showing the details of the dais (above) and of Romas sandals (below), (Photos G. Bevan, A. Gabov).


ers in the western half of the empire and the image of Rome could be connected to their victories and to the idea of the reunited empire27.

On the right of the dish is another city, identified variously as Constantinople or Carthage, who wears a long tunic and a mantle28. On her feet are sandals, the sole and thongs of which are fully rendered in fine detail (Fig. 7). The goddess, who also wears two strings of pearls and a crown of roses and leaves, holds with her left hand a flower and stalk of grain, and the fasces in her right. The standard shows a square inside which is a circular element, maybe a wreath, and a ribbon sways from the stick. The presence of a flower and a stalk of grain in her left hand and on her crown has led some scholars to suggest that Constantinople is represented as Anthou-sa (Fig. 7)29. This identification of the figure presents certain problems, however.

While Constantinople is the expected accompaniment to Roma on later consular diptychs, as well as on some coinage issues, the figure has several features that are inconsistent with known depictions of that citys Tyche30. While it can be properly observed that city Tychai share many features, such as mural crowns, there are other features that can, at times, be used to tell them apart31. First, Constantinople usually has either a mural head-dress or helmet. For instance, the figure of Constantinople from the Esquiline treasure, likely dated to the 380s, has a mural crown while the image of Constantinople on the Peutinger Table has the city deity wearing a crested crown to match that of Roma32. In the Calendar of 354 the Tyche of Constantinople combines both a mural crown and a laurel wreath of victory, and holds another wreath in her hand33. In the seventh century, a painting of Constantinople on a papyrus from Edfu is identified by the words , and shows the goddess again with a mural crown34. While the figure on the missorium has radial projections from her head, these are not parts of a mural crown. At first glance the image of Con-

27 See olovsdotter 2005, p. 108.28 stern 1953, pp. 140-141 identified the figure with Carthage: see infra. saloMonson 1973, pp. 66-71

pointed out the ideological importance of the presence of Costantinople. See also Baratte 1997, p. 126. The Ardabur dish is listed in the LIMC entries about both goddesses: r. vollkoMMer s.v. Carthago, in LIMC III: 183, n. 9; M.vickers, s.v. Constantinopolis, in LIMC III: 303, n. 31.

29 See Musso 1983, p. 20 note 42; M. vickers, s.v. Constantinopolis, in LIMC III: 303, n. 31. For Anthousa see infra.

30 For depictions of these two city goddesses, see toynBee 1947 and id. 1951-1953. For a conspectus of city Tychai in the Greco-Roman world, see shelton 1979 and more recently the study of Bhl 1995.

31 e.g., the base of the column of Arcadius has a series of city Tychai each with a mural crown. Bhl 1995, pp. 266-269.

32 shelton 1981. For extensive discussion of the city representations, see Bhl 1995, pp. 106-42. For the date see caMeron 1985, who argues for the traditional date in the 380s. shelton 1985 for a date in the 350s.

33 Bhl 1995, p. 83, pl. 48.34 Louvre, Coptic section, inv. AF 10878/79. rutschowscaya 1992, p. 30-1, fig. 40; rutschowscaya

et Al.1997, pp. 247-248; and rassart-deBerGh 1990, pp. 57-58, fig. 16. See also Bhl 1995, pp. 56-58.


stantinople of the Halberstadt diptych appears to be an exception to the rule of the mural crown or helmet and may provide a convincing parallel for the missorium of Aspar. Constantinople here has a series of radial projections. But the projections on the figure to the right of Aspar are too far apart and are bent in a way completely inconsistent with either turrets or the radiate projections on the Halberstadt diptych35.

35 Cf. toynBee 1951-53, p. 273 who describes the Halberstadt image of Constantinople as having a crown of flowers surmounted by rays, or long, spiky leaves. The authors can see nothing floral in the depic-tion of the Constantinople.

Figs. 6-7. RTI Enhancement of Rome (left) and of Carthage (right), (Photos G. Bevan, A. Gabov).


The Tyche of Alexandria in the Calendar of 354 provides the closest parallel for what we see on the missorium of Aspar. Alexandria has similar projections on her head which, on the copy, are unmistakably ears of grain. In all likelihood the projections on the head of the figure on the missorium of Aspar are ears of grain as well. While the flowers in the garland and the single flower in the Tyches hand, along with an ear of grain, on the missorium of Aspar may suggest the personifica-tion of Constantinople as Anthousa, Alan Cameron has exploded this identification36. As Cameron notes John the Lydians reference to Constantinople as the divinity Anthousa, a parallel to Rome as Flora, is a piece of wholly misleading specula-tion37. Instead, Anthousa is only a participle that means flourishing and has noth-ing to do with flowers at all. It should not, then, be surprising that there is an almost complete absence of flowers in the iconography of Constantinople, except when the citys Tyche occasionally carries a cornucopia38.

If the figure to the right of the missorium has none of the features that can be positively identified with Constantinople, the Tyche of Carthage must be seriously canvassed, despite the fact that her pairing on a par with Roma is without prece-dent39. There are numerous representations of Carthage on Tetrarchic coins, and on the issues of L. Domitius Alexander, where in every case the goddess carries fruit, perhaps figs, and ears of grain and wears neither a helmet nor a mural crown, but a wreath40. The Vandalic coins from the fifth century continue this depiction, albe-it in a cruder form41. The depiction of Carthage in the Notitia Dignitatum on the page devoted to the Proconsul of Africa has her holding stalks of wheat in each hand, and below her two square-rigged ships carrying sacks of grain42. Like the image of Alexandria on the Calendar of 354, the Tyche of Carthage emphasizes the role of Africa as the breadbasket of the Roman Empire. The Byrsa Mosaic, a heav-ily restored mosaic in the Louvre, also provides a tantalizing parallel for the depic-tion of Carthage on the missorium of Aspar43. Here the putative representation of

36 caMeron 1998, p. 395 and, more recently, caMeron 2011, p. 612. Cameron dismisses the reference in John Lydus to Constantinople as Anthousa as so influenced by abstruse antiquarian speculation as to be worthless. See especially the evidence of stePh. Byz., Eth. 18 (Meineke ed., 1849, p. 590) cited in Cameron: (This city is called Anthousa from its generally flourishing state).

37 Jo. lyd., de mensibus, 4.75: .38 For the cornucopia, see Bhl 1995, pp. 56-58 and toynBee 1947, pp. 136-137.39 For a general discussion of the depiction of the Tyche of Carthage, see clover 1986, pp. 2-5; shel-

ton 1979, p. 33; Bhl 1995, pp. 89 and 169. 40 RIC 6, pp. 426-34 nos. 27-34, 39-40, 43-44, 46-47, 49-51, 59-63 and 65-68. Also Stern based his iden-

tification with the Tyche of Carthage comparing Chartaginian issues: see stern 1953, pp. 139 ss.41 For these coins, see clover 1986, pp. 2-3.42 Notitia Dignitatum Occ. 18. On this depiction see alexander 1976, p. 14.43 Louvre, Inv. Ma 2999, ca. 500 A.D. Bhl 1995, pp. 278-283, pl. 140-142.


Carthage, so identified by parallels with the Tetrarchic coins, has a radial, nimbate head-dress and a crown of flowers. Green and brown tesserae in the head-dress suggest that the restored radiate head-dress may, in fact, have originally been a crown of grain ears. The heavy restoration of the mosaic, however, prevents it from being used as primary evidence for the depiction of Carthage in the fifth century.

The pairing of Rome with Carthage is without precedent, a fact that has sure-ly given scholars great pause in the identification of the figure on the missorium. But while there is no parallel for a city other than Constantinople being put on a par with Rome, Agnellus, writing in the ninth century, describes a mosaic in Raven-na on which Theoderic was flanked by the figures Roma and Ravenna44. While the political circumstances of Theoderics Ravenna were distant from those in 434, Aspar was advertising that his main base of activity was in Carthage and that he had served there since 431 to ward off the Vandals. His consulship was, in many ways, a reward for these efforts for the security of the West45.

In front of the dais on which Aspar is seated, in the exergue, are arrayed three groups of objects. To the left are palm leaves, an allusion to the games offered by the consul and consistent with the fact that both Ardabur and his son hold mappae. On the far right are small round shields, so identified by the umbo or boss in their centre. They bear some passing similarity to the shield under the horses hooves on the missorium of Kerch in St. Petersberg, clearly the symbol of a vanquished foe46. Like the palm leaves, the shields may refer as much to Aspars recent activities with Boniface against the Vandals as to the consular celebrations in the circus, in which war spoils were also displayed47. In the centre are two objects, one a large circle and the other a rectangle. Despite initial appearances, these are not shields but dishes, one a tray of the sort not uncommonly found rendered in African red slip ware in Late Antiquity, and the second a round missorium, surely a self-refer-ence to just the present sort of largitio dish Aspar was handing out at his games.

44 Agnelli qui et Andreas liber pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis, ed. O. Holder-Egger MGH Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI-IX (Hannover 1878): para. 94: In pinnaculum ipsius loci fuit Theodorici effigies, mire tessellis ornata, dextera manu lanceam tenens, sinistra clipeum, lorica indutus. Con-tra clipeum Roma tessellis ornata astabat cum asta et galea: unde vero telum tenensque fuit, Ravenna tessellis figurata, pedem destrum super mare, sinistrum super terram ad regem properans. Cited in MoMiGliano 1966, p. 184. Cf. shelton 1979, p. 33 who misreports the central figure as Theodosius. For more discussion of this lost mosaic and its historical context, see deliyannis 2010, pp. 114-116 and 120. Deliyannis notes too (p. 115) that the coins of Theoderic also paired Roma and Ravenna.

45 For the consulship as a reward for military service, see BaGnall et. Al. 1987, pp. 4-6. For the con-sular games as an outgrowth of the triumph, see versnel 1970, pp. 301-303.

46 For the missorium of Kerch, which has at its centre of depiction of the emperor Constantius II mounted on a horse, see leader-newBy 2004, pp. 36-8.

47 Here coins, common in depictions of the victors spoils, are not included. Cf. olovsdotter 2005, p. 132. The consular celebrations of Belisarius in 535 included the distribution of war spoils (ProcoP., Vand. 2.9.15-16).


In fact, a fragment of a Terra Sigillata plate from Alexandria in the Benaki Muse-um may itself depict two cities Tychai, perhaps Rome and Constantinople48. All these items in the exergue strongly resemble the largitiones, with the exception of coins, found illustrated on two pages in the Notitia Dignitatum, the second of which, the Insignia viri illustris comitis privatarum, provides the closest parallel49.

There are three proposals as to the place of manufacture of the missorium: Ravenna, Carthage, Rome. Domenico Bracci was the first to place the dish in Ravenna on purely historical grounds50. Salomonson, however, assigned the dish to Carthage on the grounds that there Ardabur received the consulship and on the comparison to African sigillata plates51. Baratte considered Carthage a probable place of production, but pointed out that the dish could equally have been made in Rome since it was evidently intended as gift for a recipient in Italy52. Recently Jutta Meinscher has added to the debate by remarking that the position of Ardabur Aspar, who is seated with the right knee bent out, is typical in the western Roman art and attested on the missorium of Theodosius, which, in her opinion, was commis-sioned by Galla Placidia and made in Ravenna53.

C.Z., G.B.

archaeoloGical context

The findspot of the missorium has been the subject of considerable confusion in the scholarly literature. In the title of the work of Abbot Domenico Augusto Bracci, the first editor and also the seller of the dish to the grand duke of Tus-

48 saloMonson 1973; also GarBsch 1980, pp. 161-197. Discussed in Bhl 1995, pp. 170-175. For the rendering of silver plate in terra sigillata in general, see Bowersock, Brown, GraBar 1999, p. 243.

49 Notitia Dignitatum, BSB Cl, 10291, Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, p. 101. Bayerische Staatsbibliotek, Munich.http://daten.digitalesammlungen.de/~db/bsb00005863/images/index html?id=00005863&nativeno=101. Accessed 29 August 2011. See also page 100 of the same manuscript for a similar array of largitiones for the Insignia viri illustris comities largitionum.

These images are to be compared to the distribution of spoils by Belisarius on the occasion of his consular celebrations held in 535 described by ProcoP., Vand. 2.9.15-16, cited in olovsdotter 2005, p. 132

50 Bracci 1771, p. LXIII. The same opinion is in Mensa, p. 31. 51 saloMonson 1973, p. 70 and note 251. 52 Baratte 1997, p. 127. It is considered African in Ori e argenti, p. 17.53 Meinscher 2000, pp. 241-242; The missorium of Thedosius has been ascribed to Theodosius II by

some scholars: v. Meinscher 2000; Blsquez 2000; leader-newBy 2004, pp. 48-49 conjectured that the missorium of Theodosius was not an imperial commission, but a private commission commemorating Theodo-siuss Decennalia and the investiture of the official represented, who receives the codicillary diptych from the emperor.


cany54, the discovery was located close to Orbetello, while a more precise loca-tion (Vado ai Noci) was reported in the text. Some modern scholars have handed down a generic location55, while others surprisingly wrote near Florence56, which is merely the place where the object is kept today (Fig. 8).

Bracci purchased the missorium and then offered it to the grand duke Peter Leo-pold I57. After its purchase the dish entered the archaeological collections of the Uffizi, and later the Archaeological Museum of Florence58. On the circumstances of the dis-covery we have inconsistent and mutually contradictory accounts. On August 12th, 1769 Canon Jacopo Boldrini wrote a letter to Angelo Tavanti, the Finance Minister of the grand duke, in which he stated that in the month of May of 1769, after a period of floods, Santi Brunacci of Pereta had found the dish in the bed of the Castione creek, and more precisely in a place named Vado ai Noci59. The account seems to imply that the dish had been uncovered and carried downstream by the current. To support this claim Brunacci added that shortly before his discovery three foreign labourers had reportedly found other archaeological objects valued at 36 zecchini.

Bracci in his Dissertazione, published two years later, confirmed the information about the findspot and pointed out that on the same year many floods had occurred60. According to his account, the place of discovery was at that time completely unin-habited, but in Roman times was part of the territory of Cosa61. Brunaccis account does not seem prima facie wholly implausible. In 1721 the largitio plate of Valen-tinian I (or II according to other scholars) was found in Geneva on the shores of the Arve river. In this case the surface details were worn away by water, a sure sign that it had indeed been moved along the stream-bed62.

However, there are two other documents that provide different information about the place of the discovery, and that may cast doubt on Brunaccis original account.

Not especially relevant is the alternate provenance from Roselle, c. 65 km NW of the location given by Bracci, mentioned in a letter of the curator of the numis-matic collections of the Uffizi Raimondo Cocchi63 and in a diary entry of the

54 Domenico Augusto Bracci was a mediocre antiquarian, harshly criticized by Winckelmann: see DBI, s.v. Bracci Augusto Domenico (n. Parise); fileti Mazza 1996, pp. 221-246.

55 See for example Baratte 1997, p. 125. 56 leader-newBy 2004, p. 46 fig. 1.18, who also reports a wrong date for the discovery (1750 instead

of 1769).57 See Bracci 1771, p. 16 and Archive of the Uffizi Gallery, Filza II, year 1769-70, Doc. 72. 58 zaccaGnino 2010, pp. 131-133.59 Archive of the Uffizi Gallery, Filza II, year 1769-70, Doc. 72.60 Bracci 1771, p. LII.61 Ibid.62 Montfaucon 1724; leader-newBy 2004, pp. 23-24, fig. 1.9.63 Archive of the Uffizi Gallery, Filza II, Doc. 72, August 1st, 1769, published in fileti Mazza, toMa-

sello 1999, pp. 128ff, doc. XI. On Raimondo Cocchi see fileti Mazza, toMasello 1999.


director of the Gallery Giuseppe Bencivenni Pelli64. The spectacular ruins of the Etruscan city were one of the stop-overs of the Grand Tour between Siena and Grosseto65, and likely a more prestigious findspot for the silver dish (Fig. 8).

Much more serious are the doubts cast by a still unpublished document filed in the same Filza of the Uffizi Archive along with all other records related to the discovery of the dish. The document is dated August 20th, 1774 and contains a statement by a certain Giuseppe Baccani of Paganico, who claims that he and Brunacci actually found the dish in a place called Dogana, a name indicating a tract of land reserved for pasture66. The location is said to be near Le Zolfaraje

64 Biblioteca Nazionale, Firenze, Efemeridi, Vol. XXIV, 3 August 1769, p. 105.65 See celuzza 2007, pp. 1-4.66 20 Agosto 1774 Notizia avuta da Giuseppe Baccani di Paganico in Maremma stato presente al ritro-

vamento della sottocoppa dArgento dArdaburio. Fu trovata dal Sig.e Santi Brunacci di Pereta Potesteria di Scansano, al luogo detto in Dogana, sotto le Zolfaraje, confinante alla Marsiliana in un campo, nelloccasione che volle fare un capannone per i buoi, in un fortilizio, dove si vedevano delle vestigia duna cappella da sepolcro con pilastri scolpiti a figure, con pi sepolcri ed uno di tufo, pi grande e pi lungo il doppio di quei

Fig. 8. Map of South-West Tuscany (C. Zaccagnino).


(in Italian, mines of sulphur), and the border of La Marsiliana, a large estate owned by the Corsini family since 1759, the northern limit of which is close to the con-fluence of the Fosso Turbone with the Albegna river (Fig. 9). According to Baccani, while they were searching for materials to build a stable for bulls the two found the ruins of a building that he identifies as a fort (fortilizio) containing a chapel with sculptured pillars and some sarcophagi. Inside the largest one, which was made of tufa, they found a skeleton, with the dish at the foot of the body, and some metal figurines (idoli) scattered on the bottom of the sarcophagus. A map of 1745 shows the territory between Pereta and La Marsiliana, whose northern borders are clearly delimitated67. This map, which is not particularly accurate, features the top-

che servono per una persona; entrovi ossa di figura gigantesca, ai piedi del quale era la sottocoppa e varj idoletti di metallo, sparsi per il sepolcro. Il tutto fu dai sud.i rovinato e spezzato per vedere se erano dargento o altro metallo. Il Brunacci la vende l al canonico Boldrini per lire dieci e il Boldrini alla Zecca di Firenze. Direzzione lasciata Giuseppe Baccani. Paganico per Cinigiana Potesteria dArcidosso. Short mention in fileti Mazza, toMasello 1999, p. 34, note 92 where the last name is incorrectly spelled as Bacconi.

67 Florence, National Archive, Miscellanea di Piante, 748.

Fig. 9. Map of the area around Marsiliana (from StEtr 9, 1935, p. 431, fig. 2).


onyms of Solfaraie and Dogana. The Castione creek is not indicated, but it may be the river left of Fosso Turbone.

A letter from Jacopo Boldrini, the first possessor of the Ardabur dish after Brunacci, that appeared in 1776 in the journal Novelle Letterarie is also relevant to the problem of the discovery of the dish68. Boldrini gives a short account on the discovery of the ruins of an ancient settlement in 1774 in a place called il Vecciaio on the hills of Poggi Alti, between Pereta and la tenuta della Marsiliana, 12 miles from the sea and 9 from Saturnia. He adds that in the same year uniden-tified individuals while looking for stones to build a stable found six sarcophagi with lids but without inscriptions. In another spot, but in the same area, a fistula and three inscriptions (CIL, XI 2644-2646) were found69.

The same places are described by Giorgio Santi in his travel book Viaggio al Montamiata70. After mentioning a sulphur mine little more than 3 miles from Pereta, he records that, on returning to Pereta, he and his companions reached a place called Colle di Lupo71. There they visited a hill, called la Tombara, where sarcophagi, inscriptions and reliefs had been uncovered at various times (Fig. 10)72. On the walls of the Franceschis country house they saw many fragments of travertine, a bas-relief with a putto and three inscriptions mentioning the Seviri Augustales. Two of the inscriptions (CIL, XI 2644-2645) are the same described by Jacopo Boldrini.

The location, on the left side of the Castione creek, and the circumstances of these findings are surprisingly similar to those reported by Baccani, who, it is worth remembering, gave his account in 1774.

If we believe Baccani the findspot and the context were quite different from what Brunacci had reported: the silver dish was not a stray find in the bed of the Castione, but was discovered in a tomb among the ruins of a building located in an area where significant archaeological discoveries were taking place in that very same period. If this is the truth, Brunacci had good reason to give a different ver-sion. In Tuscany according to a decree enacted on September 10th, 1761, a private citizen was required to obtain a permit from the local public museum before digging for antiquities73. Another edict (Bando) issued on October 11th, 1762 required all accidental finds to be reported to the authorities. The finder would receive a third of their value, unless he failed to report the discovery, or if he had dug with the

68 The journal Novelle Letterarie was published in Florence from 1740 to 1792. 69 Minto 1919, p. 204; ASAT, p. 535, nrr. 14.1-14.3; eck, Pack 1981, pp. 148, n. 1; 151-152, n. 9; 155,

n. 15; ciaMPoltrini, rendini 2003, pp. 295-298.70 santi 1798, pp. 239-242.71 The decumanus maximus of the centuriation of Heba reached the area of Fattoria Colle di Lupo

(carandini, caMBi, celuzza et Al. 2002, p. 130). In the area of Colle di Lupo in 1954 was found an inscription of the 1st century B.C. (ASAT, p. 535 n. 15).

72 Minto 1919, p. 204; ASAT, p. 534 n. 10. Tombara is a speaking-name from the Italian tomba i.e. tomb.73 fileti Mazza, toMasello 1999, p. 40.


intention of finding antiquities without permission, in which case he was not entitled to any reward74. Therefore it is quite possible that the version given by Boldrini and Bracci is false and was fabricated in order to claim all legal rights on the discovery. In the account he gave, Brunacci would have found the dish by chance on his own land. On the basis of a map of 1772 the property of Brunacci was

74 Florence, National Archive, Leggi e Bandi, year 1762. published in Fortuna degli Etruschi, Milano 1985, p. 118. This Bando was followed by a law of August 5th, 1780, according to which he who had dug in the land of other people without permission could be charged and had to give a compensation for the damage: Florence, National Archive, Leggi e Bandi, year 1780; Archive of the Uffizi Gallery, Filza XIII, year 1780 doc. 78, published in fileti Mazza, toMasello 1999, p. 159, doc. XXXIV. About the laws on the protection of cultural heritage during the reign of Peter Leopold see zaccaGnino 2010, p. 109 with bibliography.

Fig. 10. Map of the area of Colle Lupo (from NSc 1919, p. 203, fig. 2).


located east of Poggio di Castelluccio (Fig. 11)75. In some cadastral maps of the beginning of the nineteenth century north of Pereta there is a place called Noci, across which runs a road called Strada delle Noci che poi conduce alla Marsiliana (in Italian, The Road of the Walnuts, that goes to La Marsiliana)76. Where the road reaches the Castione a ford is clearly indicated. This is probably Vado ai Noci (in Italian, the Ford of the Walnuts). This is also the area where the land of Brunacci was located. Some doubts about the story may have arisen at the time, since Boldrini deemed necessary to stress in his letter that the story of Brunacci was reliable since he was an honest man, and Cocchi, who was a close friend of Bracci (who bought the dish from Boldrini), wrote in a letter that the antiquar-ian ought not to be charged with concealing and stealing the missorium of Ardabur, because he had saved it and he was ready to sell it to the Grand Duke77. If on

75 National Archive of Florence, Miscellanea di piante, 672.76 The maps of the historical cadastre of Tuscany can be consulted on line at http://web.rete.toscana.it/

castoreapp/index.htm#.77 Archive of the Uffizi Gallery, Filza II, Doc. 72, dated October 20th 1769. In this letter Cocchi mentions

that according to the law in force at that time the grand duke had the right of pre-emption.

Fig. 11. Map of Brunaccis field (Permission of Archivio di Stato di Firenze).


the other hand the story of Baccani is true, Brunacci would have found the object in someone elses land during an unauthorized search, and would have had no right to the dish. As a consequence, Boldrini and Bracci also would have got nothing for their mediation. An indirect confirmation of Baccanis story is the letter of Boldrini published in Novelle Letterarie, where he seems to describe the same find, but, unsurprisingly, without mention of the dish. In this respect, Brunaccis mention of unidentified foreign labourers who had found antiquities in the same area and had sold them for money also sounds suspicious, as if he were trying to divert attention from himself.

If we believe Baccani, who is probably the most reliable source, since the other version is highly suspect, the dish was found together with figurines in what seems to be a late antique grave, perhaps included in a mausoleum or a funerary chapel, possibly in relation to a villa78. Contrary to what is generally claimed, the area between ancient Heba and Saturnia was not deserted in Late Antiquity. Late antique finds are numerous in this district, among which are three villa sites locat-ed in the same small area where the dish was most likely found79. In a place called Campo della Chiesa, Mario Del Chiaro has recently excavated a large villa estab-lished in the Republican age, when it was the property of Publius Anilius, but still in use in Late Antiquity80. Remains of another late antique villa have been identi-fied during field surveys in the place called Arcione, a few kilometres south81. Even more interesting remains including column drums, collapsed walls, fragments of opus spicatum and jars were found east of Contrada Granatelle II, very close to the border of La Marsiliana82. The site, active until Late Antiquity, is located about 3 kilometres from Poggi Alti and is probably the one which best matches the account by Baccani. This area was a part of the ancient territory of Heba83, and there is no reason to ascribe the missorium to the territory of Cosa or Saturnia, as has frequently been claimed84.

The prosperity of the district between Cosa, Heba and Saturnia in the first half of the 5th century is also attested by the two hoards of Camporegio, the terminus

78 For churches and villas in Late Antiquity see sfaMeni 2007, pp. 243-272 with bibliography.79 carandini, caMBi, celuzza et Al. 2002, pp. 230f tav. 35 (300-400 A.D., 252f tav. 39 (400-500

A.D.).80 del chiaro 1999; id. 1999a. The presence of a sherd of an African Red Slip lamp of the late 4th, if

not early 5th century A.D. attests for a phase of Late Antiquity (del chiaro 1994, pp. 224-225, tav. II, 5).81 See carandini, caMBi, celuzza et Al. 2002, pp. 178-179, tav. 19; 186-187, tav. 27; 212-213, tav.

31; 228-229 tav. 34; 230-231, tav. 35; tav. 252-253, tav. 39; 254-255, tav. 40. 82 Ibid., p. 382 Fattoria Pomonte n. 18; 252-253, tav. 39.83 About Heba and the controversial date of its foundation see: eck, Pack 1981; ciaMPoltrini, ren-

dini, 2003.84 The missorium was added to a list of the inscription of Cosa by Bormann in CIL, XI; contra Mana-

corda 1979, p. 77.


ante quem of which is the third quarter of the century. The first contains coins of Valentinian III and coins celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Theodosius II. The other, found around the middle of the 18th century between Orbetello and Marsili-ana, consisted of 33 gold coins85, only one of which has been identified, a solidus of Anthemius minted at Ravenna which was eventually purchased by the Grand Duke Peter Leopold II in 182186.

The Ardabur plate is the only known example of consular silver plate, an object which seems to have been an exclusive privilege of the emperors. We have 19 examples of silver plates issued as imperial largitio. Most of them date to the 4th century, but that does not mean that they were not still in use in the 5th century87. Some scholars, who think that the largitio silver plates were not used after the 4th century, have related their alleged end to the disappearance of silver coins produced for general circulation, but it appears more likely that there was a decrease in their quantity, which makes the survival of silver dishes more difficult88. The plate of Ardabur may be evidence for such a late use, since it is unlikely that Flavius Ardabur was following a custom no longer observed.

The prestige of silver missoria is also attested by imitations in different materials. The glass dish from the Roman Forum, possibly commissioned by Acilius Severus, could be considered a sort of imitation of a silver largitio dish89. Such process of imitation is also visible in at least six Africana Sigillata plates and bronze contorniate medallions90. Silver plates were issued for Emperors, while consuls typically commissioned ivory diptychs91. The missorium of Ardabur,

85 ciaMPoltrini, rendini 1988, pp. 523-525; asolati 2006. For hoards containing gold coins of the 5th century A.D. in Italy see: Panvini rosati 1985, in which the Orbetello/Marsiliana hoard is not included.

86 Obverse: bust of the emperor and legend D.N. ANTHEMIUS PERPET. AUG; reverse: two emperors, each holding a spear and a globus cruciger; legend SALUS REIPUBLICAE, at the top in the middle RV, in the exergue COMOB. According to Novelle Letterarie 19, 1758, c. 102f the coin was discovered with other 32 gold coins in the territory of Orbetello close to the border of La Marsiliana; carchidio 1824, pp. 195-196, tav. IV, 5 describes the coinwhich he did had not seen--with a different legend on the obverse (PERPET instead of P.F.), perhaps after the description of a similar coin published by Banduri 1718, p. 591, which is quoted by him). On the purchase of the coin see Archive of the Uffizi Gallery, Filza XLIV, year 1820, Doc. 17. For the gold coins of Anthemius see lacaM 1983, pp. 414-490; 518-523; unGaro 1985, p. 59; Grierson, Mays 1992, pp. 255-259; kent 1994, pp. 193-197, 416-418, pl. 64-65.

87 For a list of the missoria see leader-newBy 2004, pp. 11-49. To this list Cameron has added the silver dish from Carthage with the garbled inscription Cresconius, (caMeron 1992, p.180, with bibliography; CIL VIII, 22657, 1; 22657, 4; AE 2002, 1673, 1674, 1675; Baratte, lanG, la niece, MetzGer 2002, pp. 30-34).

88 For an overview of this issue see leader-newBy 2004, pp. 15-16.89 Pirzio Biroli stefanelli 1988, pp. 223-224.90 leader-newBy 2004, p. 45.91 See leader-newBy 2004, p. 41; olovsdotter 2005; raveGnani 2006; david 2007, p. 17. Other

gifts were given together with the diptychs: see caMeron 1998, p. 401; cecconi 2007, pp.116-117. In addi-


a silver dish issued by a consul, looks like an imitation of the imperial practice92. The iconography is similar to that found on plates and diptycha, and in particu-lar the diptych of Clementinus93, except that the clipeate images are not portraits of the reigning Emperor and Empress, but of Ardabur, consul in 427 and Plintha, consul in 419, respectively the father and a close relative of Ardabur Aspar. Ardaburs son is also represented to complete a sort of dynastic representation94 that highlights the major role played by the consul and his family in the Eastern part of the empire95. Ardabur may have aspired to become emperor, but his Arian faith was an insurmountable obstacle (see below). The very use of a silver largitio dish and its openly dynastic imagery to celebrate his western consulship instead of the usual diptych is strong evidence for his imperial ambitions. There are other cases of barbarian generals who imitated the practice of imperial silver largitio, and by so doing equated their authority to the supreme authority of the emperor96. The silver dish of the Vandal king Geilamir, found in northern Italy at Castello dArten (Belluno), can be considered an example of this imitative practice97.

The powerful barbarian general Aspar displayed the same pomp and circum-stance as an emperor and celebrated his consulship with extraordinary gifts, more like the imperial largitio than the consular one. The silver dish celebrating him and his family must have been given to a member of the late antique lite of central Italy, whose support he was rewarding or courting. Then, perhaps after changing hands, the dish found its way to a sarcophagus in the Albegna valley. Because of the very incomplete information on the find, it cannot be determined if this was actually an intact late antique burial that could have belonged to the original recip-ient of the missorium, a descendant of his, or another member of the late antique lite who obtained possession of the valuable object98. In this case, the deceased was probably buried on his or her estate. However, silverware of this kind is not

tion to dipthycha Symmachus also mentioned canistella argentea librarum duarum, in which we can identify maybe bowls, trays or dishes different from missoria, in view of the weight of just two pounds.

92 leader-newBy 2004, p. 46.93 Ibid., p. 47; olovsdotter 2005, pp. 44-47.94 olovsdotter 2005, p. 108.95 saloMonson 1973, pp. 66-71. 96 hardt 1998, pp. 317-331.97 Morrison, Brenot, Barrandon 1988; Baratte 1997, pp. 124-125. Silver vases from the war

booty of the Vandal campaign were given as a largitio by Belisarius when he was awarded his consulship (ProcoP., Vand., II, 9)

98 We do not have evidence on the names of the late antique landowners of this area. In the ager cosanum there were the estates of the Domitii Aenobarbi, which became part of the properties of Nero and then of the imperial fiscus; later the estates of the Flavii are recorded. See Manacorda 1980, pp. 178-182; PaPi 2000, p. 179.


usually included in tomb assemblages99. There is also the possibility that the dish was actually part of a hoard of valuable metal objects, together with the metal figurines mentioned in Baccanis account. The rather detailed account of Baccani seems to describe a burial in good condition and supports the former hypothesis. More problematic are the cracks, which appear to be the results of folding, which would support the idea of an object destined to be melted down. However, it is also possible that they were made by Baccani and Brunacci when they tried to determine what metal the dish was made of.

C.Z.

historical context

The missorium of Aspar commemorates a most unusual, if not unprecedented event, in later Roman history: the appointment of an important Eastern general to a Western consulship. This may seem odd, if not impossible, but it has generally been accepted and is reported as such in the PLRE II (p. 166). It may be sug-gested to the contrary that there was not an Eastern and a Western consul for that year, but instead two Eastern consuls. Thus, Aspar and his colleague Areobindus, another Easterner, were both consuls elected in Constantinople, although Aspar, due to the exigencies of his campaign against the Vandals, served out his term in the West. There are 22 such years between 417 and 530 A.D. where there were either two Eastern or two Western consuls, recorded in the CLRE100. The precise circum-stances that caused the two consuls from only one pars imperii are unclear, but what is much clearer is that in such cases the order of consuls when reported in the East or West remains the same. By contrast, in those years from 417 to 450 when one eastern and one western consul were selected, the names change in order depending on where the consuls are reported. Those instances where the emperors served as consuls have been put to one side since the emperor always takes pre-cedence over the other consul, or if both emperors were consuls the senior Augus-tus is invariably first. Elsewhere, though, the Eastern consul is reported first when the consuls are announced in the East, and second when announced in the West, and vice versa.

421 West: Agricola et Eustathius; East: Eustathius et Agricola423 West: Marinianus et Asclepiodotus; East: Asclepiodotus et Marinianus424 West: Castinus et Victor; East:Victor et Castinus (problematic)428 West: Fl. Felix et Fl. Taurus; East: Fl. Felix et Fl. Taurus

99 A comparable case is attested at Kerch, where three silver missoria of Costantius II were also found in graves: see leader-newBy 2004, pp. 20-23. However, this may depend on local funerary customs.

100 BaGnall et Al. 1987, p. 18 (= CLRE).


431 West: Bassus et Antiochus; East: Antiochus et Bassus 432 West: Aetius et Valerius; East: Valerius et Aetius434 West: Aspar et Areobindus; East: Areobindus et Aspar442 West: Dioscorus et Eudoxius; East: Eudoxius et Dioscorus447 West: Calepius et Ardabur; East: Ardabur et Calepius448 West: Postumianus et Zeno; East: Zeno et Postumianus449 West: Astyrius et Protegenes; East: Protegenes et Astyrius

There is only one exception to this rule in 428, the consul Flavius Felix, because he had entered into the patriciate before his consular colleague Flavius Taurus, was given precedence in both East and West pursuant to a law of Gratian in 382 (CTh 6.6.2)101. As is evident from the above list, however, the year 434 was one of those years in which the names alternated according to the partes imperii in which their names were reported. Thus it stands to reason, in the absence of other contradic-tory evidence, that Aspar was indeed the Western consul in the year 434 despite his deep Eastern roots.

If it is established that Aspar did indeed enjoy a Western consulship in the year 434, a passage from Quodvultdeus, a contemporary writer in Carthage, seems to provide prima facie evidence that Aspar was made consul not in Rome but in Carthage102:

Also in our times, when the distinguished Aspar was as consul in Carthage, this diabolical and monstrous sign that took place there, who of that city did not know of? Nostris quoque temporibus, Aspero v.i. cos. Carthagini constituto, hoc signum diabolicum monstrosumque, quod illic accidit, quis illius patriae civis igno-rant?. The language of Quodvultdeus is, however, not so clear-cut as it first appears. In the same work, Quodvultdeus uses almost the identical expression, In Italia quoque, nobis apud Campaniam constitutis, to mean only, In Italy also, when we were in Campania...103. It is significant that the verb constituo is not elsewhere used in Latin to describe the creation of consuls. Instead facio or fio is generally used when a verb is required104. In other words, Aspar was almost cer-tainly in Carthage, perhaps even during the year of his consulship, but nothing in the language of Quodvultdeus suggests he was made consul in that city. This con-

101 BaGnall et. Al. 1987, p. 391. 102 Quodv., Prom. Dei, 4.6.9 (R. Braun ed.). Cf. stroBl 1998, p. 196: Ebenso ereignete sich in

unseren Tagen, als der erlauchte Aspar in Karthago als Konsul eingesetzt worden war, ein teuflisches und auf-sehenerregendes Zeichen. For Carthage at the time of Aspars term as consul, see clover 1993.

103 Quodv., Prom., 4.6.12 ( r. Braun ed.,).104 E.g., cic., Fam., 7.1: cum audivi consulem te factum esse. The Brepols Library of Latin Texts A and

B report no instances of consule and constituto, or consulibus and constitutis in proximity for the sixth century A.D. and earlier. Quodvultdeus fellow North African, Augustine of Hippo, uses the verb constituto very fre-quently to mean only that one happens to be in a particular place.


clusion, however, cannot in itself argue against the identification of the city Tyche to Aspars left on the missorium as Carthage. While consular diptychs, without exception, present the Tychai of the two imperial capitals, Roma and Constanti-nopolis, the figure to the right, as argued above, is inconsistent with all known depictions of Constantinople. Nevertheless there is every reason to think that Aspar did indeed serve out his term as consul in Carthage and that the city Tyche served as his lictor on the missorium. Just where Aspar and his son celebrated the games for their offices is not known. It seems rather unlikely, however, that games were held both in Carthage and Rome. Perhaps we are to imagine that Aspar and his son traveled to Rome to accept their offices and celebrate their games, but served their consulships in Carthage where they were most needed to command the armies against the Vandals. On the other hand, given the enormous popularity of games and races in Carthage, it is not inconceivable that games on a scale to celebrate Aspars consulship could be held in the city105. The question of why as a Western consul he served out his term in Carthage, not in Rome, is more difficult to answer.

From the Acts of the Council of Ephesus it is known that Theodosius was mobilizing forces to push back against the Vandals in the summer of 431106. It is presumed that Aspar and his father Ardabur, as well as Candidianus, headed to the West at this time to lead the expedition and assist the young Western Augustus Valentinian III, then a mere 12 years old107. This was not the first time that Aspar had gone to the assistance of Valentinian III. The Eastern general had been instru-mental in the installation of Valentinian in the West and the removal of John in 424/5, who had claimed the throne as a usurper when, on 15 August 423, the emperor Honorius died without another Western Augustus to take over immediate-ly108. Honorius earlier promotion of Flavius Constantius to Augustus, on 8 Febru-ary 421, and the marriage of the emperors sister, Galla Placidia, to Constantius had come to nought when he died in September 421. In the absence of a Western Augustus it was conventional that the senior Augustus, in this case Theodosius II, select the new member of the imperial college. Valentinian III had, of course, been groomed for the job and designated Nobilissimus in the early 420s and Caesar in

105 clover 1993, p. 7: The available evidence suggests that only Rome, Constantinople, and Alexan-dria rivaled Carthage for the quality and diversity of entertainments.

106 ACO 1.4 p. 76 (the third order that Theodosius sent to the seven Antiochene bishops at Chalcedon in the fall of 431) lines 21-24: non igitur despiciat imperium vestrum quod corrumpitur fides, in qua et vos baptizati estis et vestri parentes, in qu defixa sunt ecclesiae fundamenta, pro qua beati martyres multa milia generum mortis libentissime susceperunt, cum qua et barbaros vicistis et disssoluistis tyrannos, qua et indigetis in bello quod nunc Africam comprehendit.

107 For an account of the campaign see olyMP. fr. 46 and Philost., XII, 3. Socrates, a contemporary of these events, writes in h.e. 7.32.2 that Aspar was magister militum. For the career of Candidianus see PLRE II, s.v. Candidianus 3, p. 257.

108 PLRE II s.v. Ioannes 6, pp. 594-595.


424 at the age five. When Valentinian became Augustus in Rome in October 425 there could be little doubt that his accession was in large part thanks to the skill of Aspar and his father. It was likely that Aspar himself negotiated with Fl. Aetius and his force of Huns, who had supported the usurper, John, but were soon recon-ciled, for pragmatic reasons, to the new regime of Valentinian III.

In 431 Aspar, possibly as comes et magister militum, travelled to North Africa with the comes Boniface, a supporter of Gallia Placidias whose acquaintance Aspar had likely made in his first foray to the West109. Boniface departed in 432, but Aspar was still in North Africa by 1 January 434 when he became consul. Why did he receive this unusual honour? We know that he had already offered consider-able services to the western branch of the imperial family by installing them back to power in 425 and by fending off the Vandals. But this is only part of the answer. By 434 Valentinian III was only 15, and, though his mother Galla Placidia was still a powerful force, Aspar was perhaps conceived of as foil to the growing power of Aetius and his Huns. Yet more than this is surely indicated. The presence of Aspars relatives on the missorium, a feature not found on consular diptychs is significant because it adopts the iconography of the imperial dynasty, i.e. on missorium of Theodosius. In his missorium, Aspar was underlining the fact that a dynasty had already begun and that it was continuing in the praetorship of his young son; that he took pride in broadcasting his Romanized relatives earlier service to the state. But by so doing, he was perhaps expressing an insecurity about his own future in state where he could not himself become emperor due to his Arian religion110. By completing a peace on behalf of Valentinian III with the Vandal leader Geiseric, Aspar demonstrated that he was indispensible to both partes imperii.

Aspar, it turned out, had reason to be concerned. His career would take a sharp turn for the worse a decade after his consulship and he risked being overthrown. By October 439, the Vandals had taken North Africa and Carthage, despite the best efforts of Aspar, and a new threat loomed on the horizon: Attilas Huns. Aspar and his fam-ily were deeply involved in the defense of the East from Attila111. A planned campaign to roll back the Vandals in North Africa was aborted in 441 and the troops were redeployed East. Later in the same year Aspar was leading troops against the Huns in Illyricum, perhaps as magister militum of Illyricum112. The efforts of the Eastern generals against the Huns were unsuccessful. In 447, the year Ardabur iunior held

109 It is not certain that Aspar held the titles of comes et magister militum from 431 since no source has him a magister militum before 434. Martindale reasonably suggests in PLRE II, pp. 165-166 that he received it in 431 and perhaps even as early in 424, at which time he is called only a .

110 A. deMandt, s.v. Magister Militum, in RE, suppl. 12 (1970): cc. 770-1, argued that it was not Aspars Alan ancestry that barred him from aspirations to the imperial throne. Aspar was denied imperial position by his faith not his Gothic race. See snee 1998, pp. 175-6 (dynastic ambition), p. 185 (Arianism).

111 Bleeker 1980.112 Aspars exact position at this point is uncertain. See zuckerMan 1994, p. 171, note 42.


his consulship with Calepius as his colleague in the West, the fortunes of Aspars family took a decided turn for the worse. By 449 the magister militum of Illyricum was one Agintheus, not a partisan of Aspar, and Theodosius II sent to Attilas sec-retary Constantius the widow of Armatius, who was himself the son of Plintha and, ultimately, a relative of Aspars113. The insult must have been profound.

But the remarkable dynastic vision suggested by the missorium of 434 was to be realized despite set-backs in the late 440s and during the 460s. Aspar was decisive in the selection of the emperor Marcian in August 450, a man who served as a junior officer under him114. Subsequently the sons of Aspar, along with friends of the Isau-rian general Zeno, rose to high offices in the state115. By the death of Marcian in 457, Aspar played an explicit role as magister militum in the acclamation of his suc-cessor, the Balkan soldier Leo, who had also served in his army116. At the time of Leos accession Aspars son Ardabur Iunior was himself magister militum per Orientem.

In the sphere of religion, which not infrequently impinged on secular politics in the fifth-century, there is evidence that Aspar and his sons were active117. Accord-ing to the Vita Marciani Ardabur Iunior, almost certainly in conjunction with his father, offered silver liturgical vessels, perhaps in the 460s, to the church of St. Anastasia in Constantinople: in return for this gift Marcian had the scriptures read in Gothic in the martyrion on feast days118.

Despite the Aspars key role in the accession of Leo, the Alan general and his family did not see an unchecked rise in their power under the new emperor119. Although Leo had agreed early on to marry his oldest daughter Ariadne to Patricius, Aspars son, and then promote him as a successor, Leo put off realizing this promise to marry his daughter for as long as possible. A short-lived son was born in 463 to Leo, known only by a horoscope, gave yet further grounds to procrastinate120. In 465 Hermanaric, the other of Aspars sons, enjoyed the consulship but letters of Ardabur Iunior to the Persian king were produced that incriminated him in treachery against

113 zuckerMan 1994, pp. 171-172.114 For the accession of Marcian and Aspars role, see BurGess 1993/1994. 115 See zuckerMan 1994, pp.175-176. When Zeno dies, Ardabur, son of Aspar, takes his place as

magister militum per Orientem (Priscus, fr. 20). In 459 the eastern consul is Patricius, son of Aspar and brother of Ardabur; in 460 the eastern consul is Fl. Apollonius, magister militum and friend of Zeno; and in 461 F. Dagalaifus, son of Areobindus and the colleague of Aspar, held the consulship.

116 For Leos accession ceremony, see MaccorMack 1981, pp.164 and 241-243 and BurGess 1993-1994. On the role of Aspar in Leos reign, see now croke 2005; Cf. scott 1976, who overemphasizes the importance of Aspars Alan heritage in excluding him from the imperial throne.

117 Plintha had earlier been active in resolving contention with the Arian Psathyrian sect, the one to which he himself belonged. socr., h.e 5.23 and socr., h.e 7.17.

118 Vita Marciani, 277 (M. Gedeon ed.). On this episode and its date, see R. snee 1998, pp. 176 and 185.119 croke 2005, pp. 202-203.120 cuMont 1921, pp. 224-225, republished in PinGree 1976, pp. 147-148.


the state, and the next year he was relieved of his position as magister militum per Orientum121. Ariadne was then betrothed to Zeno, not Patricius, and Basiliscus, the emperors brother-in-law, promoted to magister militum praesentalis in 467122.

As they had for decades, Aspar and his family clawed their way back into the emperors favour. Zeno and Basiliscus were sidelined by 469, and in the wake of the failure of the Vandal expedition many generals were exiled. Aspars dynastic ambitions soon reached their acme when in 470 his youngest son, Patricius, married the daugh-ter of the emperor, Leontia, and was elevated to Caesar. Patricius seems also to have renounced his Arianism and adopted Chalcedonian orthodoxy, a precondition for his accession to emperor123. But so close to the imperial purple the ambitions of Aspar and his family, consummate survivors in the dangerous Eastern court, came crashing down. In 471 Leos suspicions over the aims of Aspar and his family boiled over, with the probable connivance of Zeno, and Aspar and Ardabur Iunior were both assassinated124. A wounded Patricius escaped but probably died of his injuries some time afterwards125. Hermanaric, the other son, was, it seems, not considered a major threat and was allowed to live, and even married a granddaughter of Zeno126.

G.B.

conclusion

The missorium of Ardabur Aspar stands at the intersection of a number of threads in the history of the fifth century, and is a monument to the enduring power and influence of a barbarian family flourishing within the machinery of the late Roman state. Aspar, with his young son next to him, both dressed in quintessential garb of the senatorial elite, could look to an already distinguished legacy of family service in the Eastern empire, a fact attested by the figures of Ardabur Senior and Plintha on his consular dish. What the missorium announced was not just Aspars attainment of the consulship, equalling the earlier attainments of his relatives, but a barbarian dynas-ty, the influence of which straddled both East and West and was rivalled only by that of the imperial family itself. Yet Aspar was no Stilicho, Honorius Vandal general whose meteoric rise to power was cut short by his assassination in 408. For here was Aspar

121 Jones 1964, p. 222.122 PLRE II, s.v. Fl. Zenon 7, pp. 1200-1207; heather 1991, p. 255.123 For discussion of Patricius supposed conversion, see snee 1998, p. 185. On Aspars last years under

Leo, see now croke 2005, which decisively puts to rest the belief that Isaurian and German/Gothic factions were competing at court.

124 Jo. Mal., 14.40 (I. thurn ed.), 125 croke 2005. 126 PLRE II, p. 549.


not only continuing the consulship within his family, but displaying publicly that his influence extended to both partes imperii by assuming a Western consulship for his service not only against the Vandals, but in the very perpetuation of Western imperium by the installation of Valentinian III almost a decade earlier. Such longevity Stilicho never obtained despite his similarly Romanized appearance on his diptych in Monza.

The missorium also pointed to a future that its contemporaries could not yet have discerned, but one which Aspar himself was surely hinting at. While Aspar would not become an undisputed eminance grise like his counterparts in West, such as Ricimer and Odovacer, he would see his influence grow steadily over an aston-ishingly long career that ended abruptly with his murder at the hands of the emper-or Leo in 471. In what would become the greatest historical irony of Aspars career, he along with his fellow general, the Isaurian Zeno, selected the new emperor Marcian on the death of Theodosius II against the wishes of the Valentinian III, precisely the emperor whom he had helped install while still a young boy.

We have to thank the circumstances of the missoriums discovery for its sur-vival. It was not found on a stream bank but most likely looted from a tomb and its provenance subsequently covered up; had it been worn in the waters of a stream the fine detail revealed by RTI would have been lost forever and the identification of the city Tyche as Carthage would have become difficult or impossible. The fact that there were large Late Antique villas in the area, and evidence of a still active economic network in the region support this conclusion. Its very size probably allowed it to escape the fate of being melted down by its recipient as the many smaller largitio plates that abounded in Late Antiquity surely were. After long years in storage and relative obscurity in the scholarly literature the missorium is now on display in the National Archaeological Museum in Florence where, it is hoped, it can be compared favourably to the other great works in silver of the fifth century.

c.z., G.B.

cristiana zaccaGnino, GeorGe Bevan, alexander GaBov

aPPendixdocuMentinG the missorium of asPar usinG reflectance

transforMation iMaGinG (rti)

While both axial and raking lighting have been used in the past to reveal fine features on Roman silverware in photographs, the development of Reflectance Transformation Imag-ing (RTI), and its underlying technology of Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM), at Hewlett-Packard Labs in 2001 introduced both a powerful and inexpensive new tool for document-


ing such objects127. Reflectance Transformation Imaging is a non-destructive photographic method used to acquire and represent the 3D reflectance properties of an artifact and display them as a computer-generated 2D image. While the technique does not yield the precise spatial information as that provided by range-base techniques such as LIDAR or confocal white-light profilometery, it does, however, offer several advantages over other techniques, particularly with flat surfaces. First, it is inexpensive. It requires only a good digital SLR camera, strobe, shutter remotes, and a black reflective sphere placed in each photograph of the object. The software to build an RTI is free. Second, the resulting data can be easily manipulated in a free viewer program. Compared to LIDAR, the PTM files are relatively small (~150mb depending on the camera used) and can be manipulated onto most personal computers.

The Polynomial Texture Map is created by fixing the camera in place and taking any-where from around 16 to 60 photographs with an illumination source, usually a portable strobe, angled at different positions, each at a fixed distance from the centre of the frame, in a virtual hemisphere around the object128. In each shot at least one black reflective sphere must be present (two are commonly used in case the highlights on one sphere are obstruct-ed). The illumination source creates a small bright specular highlight on the black sphere that the RTIBuilder software uses to calculate the precise direction of the light in each shot. With this information the RTIBuilder and the PTMFitter take all pixels of the individual images and convert them into a final PTM populated with textels, each consisting of a RGB colour value as well as the five coefficients of a biquadratic polynomial that represent the luminosity function for that pixel, i.e. how the luminosity changes when the light is put at a various angles. This polynomial can then be used to calculate the surface normal vector at that particular point, that is, the vector at right angles to the tangent of the surface. It is this surface normal vector that permits the interactive relighting of an object and the enhance-ment of minute details. The free RTIViewer allows scholars to change the light source to any arbitrary direction, and use filters such as Specular Enhancement and Diffuse Gain to increase the contrast of the image and exaggerate shading in particular directions.

On June 21 2010 the authors were given permission to undertake an RTI capture of the missorium of Aspar at the National Archaeological Museum in Florence. Three full RTI capture sequences were carried out over three hours. The 42 cm in diameter, 3 cm high plate was placed on a padded platform and a Nikon D700 DSLR camera was mounted on a tripod 120 cms above the artifact. An Auto Thyristor 285 Vivitar at power was used to light the scene. The camera was connected to a laptop and controlled over USB cable via Nikon Camera Control Pro 2TM. The flash was moved in a semi spherical pattern at a constant 150 cm distance triggered with radio frequency wireless Opus remote. A reflective sphere (black billiard ball) on a grey card background and ColorChecker Passport target were also placed on the same focal plane as the object and used in post-processing.

In the first RTI capture sequence of the face of the missorium 52 digital negative (DNG) images were acquired and of these 44 full resolution (4256 2832 pixles) images were select-

127 MalzBender, GelB, wolters 2001. For a description of the method used in the present study see MudGe, MalzBender, schroer, luM 2006.

128 For a good description of this process, see http://www.c-hi.org/learn/media/RTI_Hlt_Capture_Guide.pdf., accessed October 2010.


ed, converted into jpegs and then compiled into 129 MB LRGB PTM file. The resulting PTM lacked some detail due to underexposure of the very oblique/racking light shots and adjustments were made for the second capture.

The second capture sequence of the face of missorium of Aspar used 55 of 61 images captured at the same resolution but the power of the flash was increased to and the exposure settings were changed to provide optimal exposure for the artifact at raking angels and 20% overexposure at 70 degrees. The resulting LRGB PTM with cropped dimensions 2605 2699 and 126 MB although seemingly overexposed provided a perfect surface map and using additional surface defining terms assisted the researchers in documenting details not hitherto present in the photographic record and only partially represented in Braccis early drawing of the plate. The change of lighting interpolation helped the ability to better interpret the very faint relief and in some case better understand the direction of the tool marks. This permanent and ultimately archival record provided a digital surrogate that has been easily transmitted along with discussion notes over the Internet and has greatly contrib-uted to the understanding and interpretation of imagery.

Fig. 12. RTI Enhancement of back of missorium showing the details of modern repairs (Photos G. Bevan, A. Gabov).


In addition to the two frontal RTI captures one last capture of the back of the plate was performed processing 56 images with the higher power flash output. The relatively large LRGB PTM 125 MB cropped at 2592 2672 pixels revealed much about the original manufacture technique, subsequent damage (folding and fractures) and the history (sequence) of repairs to the artifact over the years (Fig. 12). It is hoped that these PTM files along with additional notes and observations will be made available online in the near futures for other scholars to study and manipulate.

G.B., A.G.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

alexander 1976: J.J.G. alexander, The Illustrated Manuscripts of the Notitia Dignitatum, in r. GoodBurn, P. BartholoMew (eds.), Aspects of the Notitia Dignitatum, Oxford, 1976, pp. 11-50.

alMaGro-GorBea, lvarez Martnez, Blzquez Martnez, rovira 2000: M. alMaGro-GorBea, J.M. lvarez Martnez, J. M. Blzquez Martnez, s. rovira (eds.), El Disco de Teodosio, Real Academia de la Historia (collezione Antiquaria Hispanica), Madrid 2000.

ASAT = torelli M. (ed.), Atlante dei siti archeologici della Toscana, Roma 1992.asolati 2006: M. asolati, Il ripostiglio di Camporegio (Grosseto): note sulle imitazioni bron-

zee di V sec. d.C. e sulla questione della cosiddetta moneta in rame dellItalia longobarda, in RIN 107, 2006, pp.113-161.

BaGnall et Al. 1987: r.s. BaGnall, a. caMeron, a. schwarts, k.a. worP, Consuls of the later Roman Empire, Philological Monographs No. 36, American Philolological Association, Atlanta 1987.

Banduri 1718: A. Banduri, Numismata Imperatorum Romanorum a Trajano Decio ad Palaeo-logos Augustos, Paris 1718.

Baratte 1997: f. Baratte, La vaisselle dargent dans lAfrique romaine et Byzantine, in AnTard 5, 1997, pp. 111-132.

Baratte, lanG, la niece, C. MetzGer 2002: F. Baratte, J. lanG, S. la niece, C. MetzGer, Le trsor de Carthage: contribution ltude de lorfvrerie de lAntiquit tardi-ve, Paris 2002.

Blzquez 2000: J.M. Blzquez Martinez, Aspectos cronolgicos del Missorium de Teodo-sio, in alMaGro-GorBea, lvarez Martnez, Blzquez Martnez, rovira 2000, pp. 253-272.

Bleeker 1980: R.A. Bleeker, Aspar and Attila: The Role of Flavius Ardaburius Aspar in the Hun Wars of the 440s, in AncWorld 3, 1980, pp. 23-28.

Bowersock, Brown, GraBar 1999: G.w. Bowersock, P. Brown, o. GraBar (eds.), Late Antiquity: a guide to postclassical world, Cambridge Mass. 1999.

Bracci 1771: d.a. Bracci, Dissertazione sopra un clipeo votivo spettante alla famiglia Ardabu-ria trovato lanno MDCCLIX, nelle vicinanze dOrbetello ora esistente nel Museo di S.A.R. Pietro Leopoldo Arciduca dAustria, e Granduca di Toscana, illustrato da Domenico Augusto Bracci della Societ Reale Antiquaria di Londra, Lucca 1771.

Bhl 1995: G. Bhl, Constantinopolis und Roma, Stadtpersonificationen der Sptantike, Zrich 1995.


BurGess 1993/1994: R. BurGess, The Accession of Marcian in the Light of Chalcedonian Apo-logetic and Monophysite polemic, in ByzZ 86/87, 1993/1994, pp. 47-68.

caMeron 1982: a. caMeron, A Note on Ivory Carving in Fourth Century Constantinople, in AJA 86.1,1982, pp. 126-129.

caMeron 1984: a. caMeron, Junior Consuls, in ZPE 56, 1984, pp. 159-172.caMeron 1985: a. caMeron, The Date and Owners of the Esquiline Treasure, in AJA 89.1,

1985, pp. 135-145.caMeron 1992: a. caMeron, Observations on the distribution and ownership of late Roman

silver plate, in JRA 5, 1992, pp. 178-185.caMeron 1998: a. caMeron, Consular diptychs in their social context: new eastern evidence,

in JRA 11, 1998, pp. 384-403.caMeron 2011: A. caMeron, The Last Pagans, Oxford 2011.caMeron, schauer 1982: a. caMeron, d. schauer, The Last Consul: Basilius and His

Diptych, in JRS 72, 1982, pp. 126-145.Capolavori e restauri: Capolavori e restauri, Firenze, Palazzo Vecchio, 14 dicembre 1986- 26

aprile 1987, Firenze 1986.carandini, caMBi, celuzza et. Al. 2002: a. carandini, f. caMBi, M. celuzza et Al.,

Paesaggi dEtruria. Valle dellAlbegna, Valle dOro, valle del Chiarone, valle del Tafone. Progetto di ricerca italo-britannico seguito allo scavo di Settefinestre, Roma 2002.

carchidio 1824: F. carchidio, Memorie dallantico e moderno Telamone, Firenze 1824.cecconi 2007: G.A. cecconi, Lineamenti di storia del consolato tardoantico, in david 2007a,

pp. 116-117.celuzza 2007: M. celuzza, 1.1. Viaggiatori e eruditi fra Sette e Ottocento, in a. arnoldus-

huyzendveld, c. citter (a cura di) Archeologia urbana a Grosseto. Origine e sviluppo di una citt medievale nella Toscana delle citt deboli. Le ricerche 1997-2005. Tomo I, Firen-ze 2007, pp. 1-4.

ciaMPoltrini, rendini 1988: G. ciaMPoltrini, P. rendini, Lagro cosano fra tarda antichit e alto medioevo: segnalazioni e contributi, in ArchMed 15, 1988, pp. 519-534.

ciaMPoltrini, rendini 2003: G. ciaMPoltrini, P. rendini, Mantissa Hebana, in Epigraphi-ca 65, 2003, pp. 288-301.

clover 1986: f.M. clover, Felix Karthago, in DOP 40, 1986, pp. 1-16.clover 1993: F. clover, Carthage in the Age of Augustine, in The Late Roman West and the

Vandals, Aldershot 1993, pp. 1-14.croke 2005: B. croke, Dynasty and Ethnicity: Emperor Leo and the Eclipse of Aspar, in Chi-

ron 35, 2005, pp. 147-203.cuMont 1921: F. cuMont, Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, vol. 8, Paris 1921.david 2007: M. david, Elementi per una storia della produzione dei dittici eburnei, in david

2007a, pp. 13-43. david 2007a: M. david (ed.) Eburnea Diptycha, I dittici davorio tra antichit e medioevo, Bari

2007. delBrueck 1929: r. delBrueck, Die Consulardiptychen und verwandte Denkmler, Berlin

1929.del chiaro 1994: M. del chiaro, The Chronological Significance of the Terracotta Lamps

from the Villa of Publius Anilius, in NumAntCl 23, 1994, pp. 223-229.del chiaro 1999: M. del chiaro, The villa of Publius Anilius. A Roman Villa in the Marem-

ma Tuscany, in M. ayoaGi, s. steinGrBer (a cura di), Le ville romane dellItalia e del


Mediterraneo antico, Academic Meeting at the University of Tokyo 1996, The Institute of the Study of Cultural Exchange Faculty of Letters the University of Tokyo 1999, pp. 96-107.

del chiaro 1999a: M. del chiaro, The villa of Publius Anilius and its Etruscan connection, in EtrSt 6, 1999, pp. 135-144.

deliyannis 2010: d.M. deliyannis, Ravenna in Late Antiquity, Cambridge 2010.deMandt 1986: a. deMandt, Der Kelch von Ardabur und Anthusa, in doP 40, 1986, pp.112-117.eck, Pack 1981: w. eck,

ZACCAGNINO - The Missorium of Ardabur Aspar

Documents

Transcript of ZACCAGNINO - The Missorium of Ardabur Aspar