El acueducto de Segovia y su inscripción. Dos decenios después de la ‘aventura epigráfica’

Abstract

In 1992 I undertook to restore the text of the monumental inscription which had been set up on both sides of the magnificent aqueduct of Segovia. The inscription was originally composed of gilded bronze letters, that were fixed into the surface of the granite blocks of the aqueduct by dowels. But the letters were later removed, leaving behind only the dowel holes. The difficulty of access to these meagre remains – at a height of 20 m above the ground – made it an ‘epigraphic adventure’ to examine the dowel holes at close quarters, with the aim of working out the original lettering. The initial results were published in a preliminary report the same year, but a detailed study of the aqueduct and its inscription, written in German, did not appear until 1997. This was later published as a monograph in a Spanish version as well, in 2010. The results aroused a great deal of attention not only in the scholarly world, but among the wider public as well, particularly in Spain, and have been accepted by most specialists in epigraphy, archaeology and history, by several of them with enthusiasm, as by many others, above all by the citizens of Segovia. Some scholars, however, have been sceptical and have raised objections, which require an answer. Twenty years have passed since the ‘epigraphic adventure’. One may now cite new observations on several other inscriptions of the Roman world that were prepared with the same technique. There are, furthermore, new epigraphic documents for the history of Roman Spain and, especially, for that of Roman Segovia. Thus one can not only vindicate the correctness of the method of reconstructing the text and reinforce the supporting arguments. New perspectives on the technique of preparing texts with bronze letters can be offered, likewise on imperial initiatives for the construction and later the renovation of the aqueduct, as also for the historical setting of these initiatives. All this makes it legitimate to devote a new contribution to the aqueduct and its inscription, two decades on from the ‘epigraphic adventure’.