Funerary inscription of Alfenius Ceionius Iulianus Kamenius
TNMM 910 ↔ CIMRM 206
Inscription from Antium, found at San Donato in 1884.
Inter avos proavosque tuos sanctumque parentem
Virtutem meritis et honoribus emicuisti,
Ornamentum ingens generis magniq̣ue senatus.
Sed raptus propere liquisti, sancte Kameni,
Aeternos fletus obiens iuvenalibus annis.
Te dulcis coniunx lacrimis noctesque diesque
Cum parvis deflet natis, solacia vitae
Amisisse dolens casto viduata cubili;
Quae tamen extremum munus, solacia luctus,
Omnibus obsequiis ornat decoratque sepulcrum.
Alfenio Ceionio Iuliano Kamenio v(iro) c(larissimo) quaestori candidato / praetori triumphali, VII viro epulonum, patri sacrorum summi / invicti Mitre, hierofante Aecatae, archibucolo dei Liberi, XV viro / s(acris) f(aciundis), tauroboliato deum Matris, pontifici maiori, consulari / Numidiae et vicario Africae qui vixit annos XLII m(enses) VI d(ies) XIII. / Rec(essit) II nonas septembr(es) d(omino) n(ostro) Archadio et Fl(avio) Bautone v(iro) c(larissimo) cons(ulibus).
385 A.D.
Kamenius is also stated in two inscriptions from Rome (See our Nos 515; 516), but there he is still magister et pater sacrorum, whereas at his death he bears the grade of pater patrum.
Sancte: No. 486.
CIMRM II 206
Read in l. 2: virtutum.
Main inscription
Virtutem meritis et honoribus emicuisti,
Ornamentum ingens generis magnique senatus.
Sed raptus propere liquisti, sancte Kameni,
Aeternos fletus obiens iuvenalibus annis.
Te dulcis coniunx lacrimis noctesque diesque
Cum parvis deflet natis, solacia vitae
Amisisse dolens casto viduata cubili;
Quae tamen extremum munus, solacia luctus,
Omnibus obsequiis ornat decoratque sepulcrum.
Alfenio Ceionio Iuliano Kamenio v(iro) c(larissimo) quaestori candidato / pretori triumfali, VII viro epulonum, patri sacrorum summi / invicti Mitre, hierofante Aecatae, archibucolo dei Liberi, XV viro / s(acris) f(aciundis), tauroboliato deum Matris, pontifici maiori, consulari / Numidiae et vicario Africae qui vixit annos XLII m(enses) VI d(ies) XIII. / Rec(essit) II nonas septembr(es) d(omino) n(ostro) Archadio et Fl(avio) Bautone / v(iro) c(larissimo) cons(ulibus).
you shone forth through virtue, merit, and honours,
a great ornament to your lineage and to the noble Senate.
Yet, taken too soon, holy Kamenius,
you left behind eternal mourning, dying in the years of youth.
Your devoted wife, in tears night and day,
together with your little children, mourns you,
grieving that she has lost the consolation of her life,
widowed from a chaste marriage bed;
and yet, as a final duty and solace in grief,
she honours and adorns your tomb with every devotion.
To Alfenius Ceionius Iulianus Kamenius, clarissimus, quaestor candidatus, triumphal praetor, member of the college of the septemviri epulones, father of the sacred rites of the supreme unconquered Mitra, hierophant of Hecate, archibucolus of the god Liber, member of the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, tauroboliate of the Magna Mater, pontifex maior, governor of Numidia and vicarius of Africa, who lived 42 years, 6 months and 13 days. He died on the 4th of September during the consulship of Arcadius Augustus and Flavius Bauto, vir clarissimus (385 CE).
References
Eph. Ep. VIII, 648; MMM II No. 147.
- Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef (1956) Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
