IEleus 630 Statue base of Fulvius Plautianus

Statue base of Fulvius Plautianus

I Eleusis 630 Date: 203-205 AD

(This statue of) ⟦…⟧ kinsman (oikeion) of the greatest and most divine emperors Lucius Septimius Severus Pius (5) Pertinax Augustus and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Publius Septimius Geta [Caesar], the two-time consul Fulvius ⟦[Plautianus], patron (prostatēn) and⟧ [benefactor] (was erected by) the City.^[1]

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References:

I Eleusis 630 (Translated text) (PHI)

IG II² 4216 (PHI)

Translation by: Chris de Lisle

Monument type: Base

Inscription type: Statue

Findspot: Eleusis (Eleusis Museum E 1014)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This is a statue base for Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, who was Praetorian Prefect under Septimius Severus from 197 to 205 AD (cf. Dio 76.14-77.5; D. S. Potter The Roman Empire at Bay Rev. ed., 2014, 115-18). He was a nephew of Severus' mother and his daughter Fulvia Plautilla married Severus' son and co-emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Caracalla) in 202, hence the term "kinsman" (cf. P.Col. IV 123 ll. 48-49, a rescript issued by Severus). In the years 202-205 AD, he arrogated an unprecedented degree of power to himself. It is possible that he was honoured by the Areopagos, Council and People in Agora XVI 342 during this period. The terminus post quem for this inscription is his consulship in 203 – actually his first, but counted as a more prestigious second consulship because he had previously been granted consular rank by Severus (Cass. Dio 46.46.4, the first instance of a practice that became common thereafter: P. M. M. Leunissen, Konsuln und Konsulare in der Zeit von Commodus bis Severus Alexander, 1989, 66-68). The terminus ante quem is 205, when Plautianus was executed and suffered damnatio memoriae. His name was presumably erased at this time, or possibly during an earlier incident when Severus decided that Plautianus had received an excessive number of statues and ordered some of them melted down (Cass. Dio 76.16.2). Exceptionally, the name of Geta, Caracalla's younger brother, who suffered damnatio memoriae in turn in 211 AD (see IG II³ 4, 1397 with notes), is not erased, probably because the base had already been removed from sight before this date.

Added: 28 Jul 2023
Updated: 28 Jul 2023
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ID: AIO_2742