Il ritrovamento di CIL XI 969: un’importante iscrizione onoraria di Regium Lepidi che si credeva perduta

Abstract

In the year 2105 it was casually found in the warehouse of the Museo Diocesano di Reggio Emilia a large marble slab, broken into two fragments, with an ancient inscription. In it, by decree of the Decuriones of Regium Lepidi, was honored an exponent of the local equestrian aristocracy, Titus Pomponius Petra. At the top of his political and military career, he held the office of praefectus equitum in the headquarters of Germanicus, probably during military campaigns conducted against the German tribes between 11 AD and 17 AD. The inscription was identified by the discoverer with CIL XI 969, edited by E. Bormann in 1884 and considered lost. The one of Pomponius Petra has evident formal and textual analogies with a second honorary epigraph, found in fragments in the public area of the town of Regium Lepidi; this circumstance suggests that Petra’s inscription was originally placed on the front of a base, probably of a statue, in the forum of the ancient city. The name of Pomponius Petra could be also connected with a brick stamp, coming from the surroundings of Reggio Emilia. The unexpected finding of his honorary title, gives new light on the figure of Petra. He was probably the creator of a cavalry unit, the Petriana Wing; this unit was formed with elements recruited by the tribe of the Treviri and, as Tacitus reports, remained in the custody of the limes Germanicus until the Flavian age, when it was transferred to Britain, where it remained until the fifth century AD.