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Tetrakionia.Überlegungen zu einem Denkmaltypus tetrarchischer Zeit im Osten des römischen Reiches

2002; Brepols; Volume: 10; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1484/j.at.2.300444

2295-9718

Wolfgang Thiel,

Classical Antiquity Studies

This article focuses on a specific group of public monuments, generally called tetrapyla but also known as tetrakionia, which were a widespread and significant phenomenon in the urban layout of a number of Roman cities throughout the Near East. Some new thoughts and ideas as to their dating and function are presented here. Situated at the intersection of the major thoroughfares within the street grid and often placed in the middle of a kind of circular piazza tetrakionia formed an integral part of the urbanistic system of Roman provincial cities in the Near East. Aside from a prominent location, the basic characteristic feature of this type of monumental structure was to be composed of four single pillars, identical in size and shape. Though standing apart from each other, they were arranged in a coherent square plan. Each of the four pillars consisted of a massive pedestal or podium with a baldacchino-like superstructure, an open construction comprising four columns and an entablature, and thus forming a kind of roofing for an over-lifesize statue that once stood on a base in the centre. The surrounding circular piazza, built to create an impressive setting for the monument itself, was encompassed by a ring of storerooms or workshops which had quarter-circular façades adorned with columns and statues. Representative examples of such civic monuments were found in Syria (Palmyra, Philippopolis-Shahba, Bostra-Bosra, Antioch) as well as in Jordan (Gerasa). Furthermore, there is evidence for the existence of tetrakionion-like structures in Israel (Scythopolis, Caesarea Maritima and Antipatris-Tel Aphek), and in Lebanon (Chalcis-)'Anjar). One of the best-preserved and thoroughly studied examples known so far is the so-called 'South Tetrapylon' at Gerasa excavated by the Yale University Expedition in 1929/30 and 1933/34. In the following decades, most of the scholars working on similar monuments in Syria and elsewhere were inclined to accept the interpretation given by Kraeling in his publication on the principal monument at Gerasa. In accordance with his general ideas about the urban development of this important member of the Syrian Decapolis, Kraeling argued in favour of dating the monument around the middle of the 2nd century A.D. For that raeson, he obviously neglected a piece of evidence, which is crucial not only to defining the exact date of the monument, but also to understanding its function and historical and political context. Two Latin inscriptions are preserved which originally were placed at the top of two of the podia, each of them mentioning a member of the first tetrarchy, i. e. Constantius Chlorus and Maximianus Herculius. The inscriptions refer to a dedication apparently to all four tetrarchs by Aurelius Felicianus, vir perfectissimus praeses provinciae Arabiae, sometime between 293 and 305 A.D. According to Kraeling, these inscriptions could not have been part of a monument erected during the Antonine period, but were added there at a later stage. There is, however, some reason to surmise that the inscriptions must be attributed to the original honorific complex. In fact, these were two of four dedicatory inscriptions belonging to the monument in question and providing the key to interpretation. Moreover, if one compares the 'South Tetrapylon' to the two well-known four-column-monuments inside the Late Roman legionary camp at Luxor in Egypt, the implicit symbolism and enhanced political meaning of such honorific monuments emerges clearly.