Supports and Methodology

Even though in the Eastern Necropolis fragmentary inscriptions and damaged object relative to crematory funerary practices were found, this thesis will focus on the inscriptions engraved on sarcophagi.

The fronts of the sarcophagi were removed, with the exception of the arcae of Firmina and Vassio, that are still preserved in their entirety. The main elements shared by the inscriptions are listed below:

Standard Information

Type of document

These are fronts or panels cut from sarcophagi and subsequently removed, except for the arcae of Firmina and Vassio, still intact in their entirety. They are currently embedded into the walls of the Museo Nazionale Concordiese at Portogruaro or kept in its storage facilities.

Material

All the sarcophagi were made of limestone, which most probably came largely from the Aurisina quarry.

Figurative apparatus

With few exceptions, the sarcophagi from the necropolis are now lost; consequently, most of the decorative apparatus has vanished. In many cases, the description relies on the observations of Dario Bertolini, the first and, for some arcae, the only scholar to have conducted an autoptic examination.

Life cycle

All the inscriptions were found in the necropolis and transferred directly to the museum or to its storage facilities. Each inscription is accompanied by the inventory number assigned by the Soprintendenza alle Antichità del Veneto.

Dating

These inscriptions can be roughly dated between the third and the end of the fifth century, but only a few of them can be dated precisely. Among these are the epigraphs of Emperor Julian and of Manius.[1] Dating relies primarily on palaeographic comparison with these two anchors to propose a chronology that remains necessarily approximate.

Prosopography

Available evidence is limited, as the majority of individuals mentioned are ordinary persons otherwise unattested in literary or historical sources.

Bibliography

Crucial are Bertolini's reports in the Bullettino dell'Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica and in the Notizie degli Scavi, where, in addition to the transcription of the inscriptions, the context of their discovery is also described. Mommsen visited Concordia in August 1876 during one of his journeys in Italy, but for the inscriptions discovered subsequently he relied on Bertolini's transcriptions. Other epigraphic corpora that have dealt with some of the inscriptions from the necropolis are the ILS and the ILCV, which are based chiefly on what was reported by Mommsen. Between the 1940s and the 1970s of the twentieth century, particularly significant were the contributions of Paolo Lino Zovatto and Giovanni Battista Brusin; the former was appointed curator of the Museo Nazionale Concordiese at Portogruaro in 1945, while the latter was one of the founders of the Associazione Nazionale per Aquileia. More recently, Giovanni Lettich included the inscriptions from the burial ground in two collections: Le iscrizioni sepolcrali tardoantiche di Concordia (1983) and Le iscrizioni romane di Iulia Concordia (1994).

Author's Contributions

Furthermore, the following data was gathered by the autopsy carried out by the present author in 2024 and his studies:

Measurements of the monument

The measurements were taken personally in the Museo Nazionale Concordiese at Portogruaro or in its associated storage facilities. With the exception of the arcae of Firmina and Vassio, the measurements that can be provided correspond only to the portion of the sarcophagus that was cut off and built into the museum.

Palaeographic analysis

The most noteworthy palaeographic features, like peculiar shapes of the letters that differs from the standard imperials one and ligatures, where recorded and will be provided in the digital files.