Primer testimonio de evergetismo en el foro de Valeria (conventus Carthaginiensis, Hispania Citerior): una nueva placa opistógrafa

Abstract

The article publishes for the first time fragments of a monumental opisthographic inscription found in excavations in the NW corner of the forum of the municipium of Valeria (conventus Carthaginiensis, Hispania Citerior). Despite its fragmentary nature, the elegant streaked marble plaque attests on each side acts of euergetism by a husband and wife from among the local elite in the later Julio-Claudian period. It is the first marble inscription discovered at the municipium of Valeria and, as a result, must have made a striking impact in the epigraphic landscape in which it was displayed. In spite of its fragmentary condition, the fuller text (titulus 1) attests that the husband had returned to Valeria after a military career in the Legio III and possibly other units of the Roman army, to enter upon a local civic career, while it also mentions the formal reception of the wife in the local citizen body of Valeria (in numerum civium recepta), a privilege very rarely attested in the Roman west. The article discusses in detail the function and display of the text, specifically whether the two sides of the plaque were visible at the same time or whether the plaque was taken down and reused for the second, shorter inscription. Some hypotheses are advanced about the physical context in which the plaque was once displayed.