Basic info

Collection

Archaeology

Title

To the Gods of the General's Praetorium

Object name

Votive model

Object category

Roman

Description

Votive tablet with punched, dotted Greek inscription 'To the Gods of the General's Praetorium'. Described, along with YORYM : H4.1 (the smaller inscription), in Eboracum as "Votive tablets, two, of bronze, of ansate form, originally silvered and mounted for suspension, one 3ins by 2ins, the other 2ins by 1in. Each carried a Greek inscription in punched dots.... The larger reads [unfortunately currently Greek alphabet cannot be used here; please see Eboracum for details of the untranslated inscriptions] "To the gods of the govenor's residence, Scrib(onius) Demetrius". The smaller reads "To Ocean, Tethys and Demetrius". Demetrius has been identified with Demetrius, the school teacher for senior boys, whom Plutarch met at Delphi in AD 83-4, where Demetrius recounted his experiences from an intelligence reconnaissance of the Western Isles. The dedication to Ocean and tethys, his consort, recalls, probably deliberately, that made by Alexander the Great at his furthest point of exploration in the Indian Ocean. Demetrius would feel that he had achieved its counterpart at the other end of the world."

Production date start

43

Production date end

410

Period

Roman