This inscribed statue base from the Roman province of Mauritania Tingitana Marco Valerio Bostaris

 

M(arco) Val(erio), Bostaris / f(ilio), Gal(eria tribe), Seuero,/aed(ili) , sufeti, II uir(o), / flamini primo I in municipio suo, / praef(ecto) auxilior(um) aduersus Aedemo/nem oppressum bello..." "To Marcus Valerius Severus, son of Bostar, of the tribe Galeria , aedile, suffet, duovir, first flamine in his municipality, prefect of the auxiliaries against Aedemon who was crushed during the war...

This inscribed statue base from the Roman province of Mauritania Tingitana

records the favours and rewards granted to the town of Volubilis by the emperor

Claudius, following its support of Rome during a revolt by a local population.

It is an important example of how the ‘benefits’ of Romanisation were extended

to provincial communities, as well as being an interesting testimony of

Claudius’s policy towards granting citizenship. The inscription states that

Marcus Valerius Severus successfully won a series of benefits for the city of

Volubilis and his fellow inhabitants there. In spite of his Latin nomenclature,

Severus was most likely of local north-African origin, which is indicated by his

father’s name, Bostar. Severus was clearly a member of the local elite; he was

an aedile, a duumvir, a sufes – a well established Punic magistracy – and the

first flamen (priest) in his municipium, and his wife was wealthy enough to

dedicate this large monument at her own expense, as indicated in the final four

lines of the text. Fabia Bira, Severus’s wife, was also of north-African origin

(she is named as the daughter of Izelta, Izeltae filia); although there were

certainly towns in this region of Mauretania that were made up of Roman

settlers, the success of Severus and Fabia Biria was not due to their Roman

origin: both were of indigenous descent and their prominence should be better

understood as an example of the Julio-Claudian policy towards inclusion and

promotion of the local aristocracy. Marcus Valerius Severus had been successful

in a particular context too, which was key to the approval of his petition to

the emperor Claudius for citizenship and the status of municipium for the city.

Severus had been praefectus auxiliorum (leader of the auxiliary forces) and with

them had suppressed the uprising of a Berber freedman named Lulius Aedemon, who

had revolted against Rome late in 40 CE. Aedemon had been led to revolt by the

supposed ‘murder’ of the client King of Mauretani