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Marble basements of the Sacellum of the Augustales

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 Going out of the room of the Plaster Casts, following the present visit route which grazes the imposing wall and going beyond a narrow communication trench, you arrive in proximity to the north-west Tower also called Pincers Tower.

Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei - varco conducente alla Torre Tenaglia

Archaeological Museum of the Phlegraean Fields - The characteristic passage which takes to the foot of the Pincers Tower

In an open space in the shadow of the imposing 2^ Torre Cavaliere (Knight Tower) you can admire, numerically ordered, 11 marble cippi found between 1968-72, in the Sacellum of the Augustales in Miseno. The marble basements are all of great historical interest because they bear epigraphs to divinities and emperors, dedicated by the richest personages of the city and the wealthier freedmen (in search of social ransom) who constituted the College of the "Augustales" (ministers of the imperial cult).

Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei - Cippi rinvenuti nel Sacello degli Augustali

Archaeological Museum of the Phlegraean Fields - The area were are shown the eleven marble cippi bearing inscriptions and figures.

Archaeological Museum of the Phlegraean Fields - Detail of one of the cippi.

Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei - Particolare di uno dei cippi

Some of them, such as Cassia Vittoria, lavished part of their enormous richness in works of enlargement, embellishment and restoration of the temple.

Going on from right to left it is possible to notice the basements of the statues of Nerva, Apollo, Dionysus and Esculapio. Nearly in the middle there is another basement dedicated to the emperor Nerva and following: a basement without epigraphs, one dedicated to the ancestress of the Gens Julia, Venus, and one of the Curatores Quinto Caminio Abascanto and Caio Giulio Febo. The order is closed by the basements of the life trustee Lucio Licinio Primitivo and of Nerva's adoptive son, Traiano.

Archaeological Museum of the Phlegraean Fields - Detail of cippus with dedication of Licinio Primitivo.

Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei - Particolare di cippo dedicato a Licinio Primitivo

Datable to 112 A.D., the basement which supported the equestrian statue of the emperor Traiano is bigger than the other ones. It was given, as it can be read, by the Caminii, the imperial Lucio Caminio Ermes Seniore and his two sons Lucio Caminio Filippo and Lucio Caminio Ermes Juniore.

On the long sides of the basement we can admire three raised figures; on the right there is a woman standing on a rostrated ship who holds a rudder between the forearm and the left shoulder, while with the right one she leans on the rudder of the ship. This woman personified the "Tutela Classis", the patroness of the military fleet.

Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei - Particolare di donna protettrice della flotta militare

Archaeological Museum of the Phlegraean Fields - Detail of woman on rostrated ship

Nearly in the corner of the same side, it is visible a pitcher: the jug represented one of the symbols of the College of the Augustales. At the other side a man wearing a gown keeps in his left hand a cornucopia and in the right one a patera, a typical cultural container. This male image represented the Genius of the Municipium and, like the previous one, it reproduces the features of a statue which was situated in the close forum of the city.

The marble basement, dedicated by the trustee Lucio Lecanio Primitivo to the Greek god Dionysus, has on one of its sides a cargo-ship sculptured in relief.

Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei - cippo con nave onoraria

Archaeological Museum of the Phlegraean Fields - Detail of cippus with cargo-ship sculptured in relief