THE ROMAN INSCRIPTIONS OF CELEIA AND ITS AGER (RIMSKI NAPISI CELEJE), Julijana Visočnik

Why would someone from famous, rich, and magnifi­cent Ephesus in present-day Turkey want to move to small, insignificant Celeia? It could be because it was neither small nor insignificant. Namely, numerous stone monuments with inscriptions confirm its enviable position and importance within the Roman Empire. In this monograph, written in English, the author reveals the contents of the inscriptions on monuments from Roman Celeia.

The monograph about the Roman inscriptions of Celeia and its surroundings collects all the Ro­man (Latin) inscriptions from Celeia and its ager for the first time in one volume–unfortunately without those found in recent years, which will be published by another expert sometime in the future. Thus, it is clear at first glance that this Roman town stood out in terms of importance, since more than 500 inscrip­tions are so far known from this area, which is no small number for a provincial town.

The inscriptions, too many of which are today un­fortunately lost, take us to the wonderful world of a provincial Roman town, in which all through its his­tory the local (autochthonous) principle and the one brought along by the new masters of the Norican (and wider) area, mixed. Autochthonous names, divinities, iconography on the one hand and Roman officials, soldiers, and priests on the other confirm just that. Thus, the inscriptions introduce actual individuals and their destinies, occupations and duties, religious practices, and social stratification: slaves and freed­men; the municipal elite: decurions and duumviri; foreigners who came to Celeia from afar etc.