Object type
inscription
Culture/period
Roman world
Materials
bronze
Technique
casting, embossing
Mint
Production date
98
Museum
Museu de Badalona
Current location
Exposició permanent
Archaeological site
Ciutat romana de Baetulo. Clos de la Torre
Township
Badalona (Europa, Espanya, Catalunya, Barcelona, Barcelonès)
Dimensions
44,55 x 37 x 0,4cm
Description
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The tabulae hospitalis or hospitality tabulae were legal documents that testified to a pact between an individual, recognized as protector, and a community that accepted him as patron and paid homage to him.
The one from Badalona includes the pact agreed on June 8, AD 98 between the Baetulonensis (people from Badalona) and Quintus Licinius Silvanus Granianus, son of Quintus, a man from the Licinia family of Tarraco, who probably had administrative positions and economic interests in Baetulo and who became consul in 106 AD.
This tabula was found in 1934 in the excavations of the Clos de la Torre, where a series of rooms were identified that opened onto a central patio and that were partly built on the wall. It was interpreted as a part of the possible domus of Quintus Licinius, in a place where a pond or pool was discovered in 1957 that was probably part of the peristyle of the house and that is currently open to public visits under the name of Garden of Quintus Licinius.
In one of these rooms, which J. Font i Cussó interpreted as a storage room, since it was half buried, the tabula was found leaning on the tiled part of the room.
It has an articulated handle at the top that must have been used to carry it, but surely it must have been hung on the wall of a public building or on a pedestal in the forum. It has four holes, one at each angle, for the nails that would hold it.
The epigraphic transcription is:
IMP(eratore) NERVA CAESAR(i) TRAIANO
AVG(usto)·GERM(anico)·II
C(aio)·POMPONIO·PIO COS(consulibus)
VI IDVS IVNIAS
BAETVLONENSIS EX HISPANIA CITERIO
RE HOSPITIVM FECERUNT
CVM Q(uinto) LICINIO SILVANO GRANIANO
EVMQVE LIBEROS POSTEROSQVE
© Museu de Badalona
Omeka ID
1888