A SEVERAN GOVERNOR OF UPPER MOESIA
ERIC BIRLEY 
Hexham
One often assum es th at the compilers of l’ Année Épigraphique will have 
noted and reproduced all inscriptions of im portance, particularly such as 
have been published in journals whose contents are subjected to regular 
scrutiny for possible notice in A. E. But there is always the chance that, for 
one reason or another, a particular issue m ay fail to be taken into account, 
and so it was w ith Spom enik LXXI for 1931. That volume contained a num ber 
of very interesting inscriptions which fully deserved to be brought before a 
w ider public; those of them which attest legionaries were duly taken into 
account by Giovanni Forni in his valuable survey, Il Reclutam ento delle Le­
gioni da Augusto a Diocleziano (1953), though he did not have occasion to 
reproduce their texts. B ut some inscriptions which relate to the auxilia have 
been less fortunate; they were m issed both by W alter Wagner, Die Dislo­
kation der römischen Auxiliarformationen in den Provinzen Noricum, Panno­
nien, Moesien und Dakien von Augustus bis Gallienus (1938), and by Konrad 
K raft, Zur Rekrutierung der Alen und K ohorten an Rhein und Donau (1951). 
One of those inscriptions deserves all the m ore attention because it can be 
shown th at it records a previously unknow n governor of Upper Moesia.
The inscription in question, no. 186 at p. 81, comes from Timaeum M inus; 
its text, as recorded, is as follows :
[im p( eratori) Caes(ari) / L(ucio) Sept]im io / \_Seve]ro Pio J [Pertin~[aci 
A ug(usto) / [Ara]b(ico) A [diab(enico)] Part(hico) / Maximo p(ontifici) m(a- 
xim o) tr(ibunicia) / \_pot( estate)] V II [im ]p( eratori) X I co (n )s(u li) II / 
[p(atri) p(atriae) p ro]co(n)s(uli), coh(ors) I I Aur(elia) / [D (ardanorum )] 
( m illiaria) eq(uitata) d(ono) d(edit), C. G abinjlio--
The restoration [D (ardanorum )] is certain, for the place had already yield­
ed m ore than a dozen inscriptions of the coh. I I Aurelia Dardanorum, one 
of several auxiliary units raised by Marcus Aurelius ; the date, given by the se­
venth tribunician year of Septim ius Severus, is A. D. 199. The question which 
arises is the status of the m an whose praenomen and nomen alone survive, 
im m ediately after the m ention of the cohort.
On dedications by auxiliary units it is m ost commonly the case th at they 
m ention the com m ander of the unit, the governor of the province, or both ; and

w hen both of them are m entioned, the nam e of the governor regularly precedes 
th a t of the u n it’s com m ander. Now in the m ajority of cases the tw o nam es 
are each given w ith either a preposition or a verb to define their statu s : for 
the governor, per or sub or the like, for the com m ander instante o r curante, 
bo th m en in addition having their status defined — leg. Aug. pr. pr., o r praef. 
(o r w hatever ran k the particular com m and m ay involve). But in a num ber 
of cases we find the governor's name in the ablative absolute, his title alone 
indicating his p art in the dedication; I have noticed examples of this usage 
in Dalmatia, M auretania, Lower Moesia and Numidia, on texts ranging in 
date betw een the time of H adrian and that of Aurelian.1 There can be no 
reasonable doubt, therefore, th at the C. Gabinius of the present inscription can 
be taken as the consular governor, in A. D. 199, of Upper Moesia.
The question arises w hether he can be equated w ith some o ther senator 
of those names and m ore; and fortunately there is one ready to hand, in the 
proconsul of Asia, C. Gabinius B arbarus Pompeianus, attested by a Greek 
inscription from Euhippe in Caria, first published by M. Louis R obert, and 
reproduced in A. E. 1953, 90 :
Ay:lH) T 6 -/Y ] — - VHoc Taßwioc Bäpßapoc ILv-r/.avbc àv&ózato? kéyv. . ..
. .. -e c u xupi'ou c/.b~ov.py.zopoc Avwveivou . . .
M. Robert pointed out th a t the em peror Antoninus m ust be Caracalla, and the 
date of the proconsulship will therefore have fallen within the period A. D. 
212/217 ; a senator who was already consular in A. D. 199 should have become 
proconsul of Asia early in th at period, though I do not see th at we have 
evidence to indicate the precise proconsular year in this case.
If we can accept the identification just proposed, there rem ains the que­
stion of the consular’s relationship w ith the equestrian Q. Gabinius B arbarus, 
who rose to be pro cu rato r of three Augusti and prefect of Sardinia {C lL X 
7585 = ILS 1360). His case has been discussed in M. H.-G. Pflaum ’s m agistral 
survey, Les carrières procuratoriennes equestres sous le haut-empire romain 
(1960/1961) under no. 265, pp. 708—712, taking into account not only the in­
scription from Euhippe b u t also two texts from Venafrum (C /L X 4860 and 
4861 = IL S 1136): these record a form er equestrian officer, L. Gabinius L. f. 
T er(etina) Cosmianus, his sons — one of w hom may be inferred w ith con­
fidence to have been th e procurator Q. Gabinius B arbaras —, and a grandson, 
Gabinius Vindex Pompeianus. M. Pflaum came to the conclusion, w ith evident 
hesitation, th at the Caracallan proconsul should be the same as the grandson 
of Cosmianus, and th at his full nom enclature was C. Gabinius B arbarus Vin­
dex Pompeianus. Yet it seems difficult to accept that view, prim arily on a 
consideration of the chronology involved.
There is no doubt th at Q. Gabinius B arbaras was prefect of Sardinia under 
Septim ius Severus and his sons. C. Gabinius Vindex Pompeianus, taken by 
M. Pflaum to have been the nephew of the p ro cu rato r and son of the latter’s 
elder brother, Gabinius Asper, and thus the grandson of Cosmianus, can surely 
not have been a senator, and already of consular standing, as early as A. D. 
199. It seems m ore reasonable to suppose th at our governor of U pper Moesia 
belonged to an earlier generation of the fam ily : perhaps an elder b rother of

the procurator? After all, there are plenty of cases on record in which an 
elder son entered upon a senatorial career, while his younger b ro th er re­
m ained, like his father, a m em ber of the equestrian order.2
1 Cf., for example, CIL V III2488 (El- 
Outhaya): imp. Caesares M. Aurelius An­
toninus et L. Aurelius [Commodus Aug.} 
Germanici Sarmatici fortissimi amphi­
theatrum vetustate corruptum a solo re­
stituerunt per coh. VI Commag(enorum), 
A. Iulio Pompilio Pisone Laevillo leg. 
Aug. pr. pr., curante Aelio Sereno pra- 
ef(ecto).
2 Cf. Arthur Stein, Der römische Rit­
terstand (1927), passim. It is remarkable 
that Arthur Stein failed to take note of 
the text from Timaeum Minus in his 
monograph on Die Legaten von Moesien
(1940); hitherto, the only reference to it 
which I have been able to trace is in 
my son Anthony Birley’ s book, Septi­
mius Severus, the African Emperor 
(1971), 331, where he notes that C. Ga­
binius Barbarus may be taken to have 
succeeded L. Fabius Cilo and preceded 
Q. Anicius Faustus in the governorship 
of Upper Moesia. And it should be not­
ed that Gabinius Barbarus must be 
added to the list of those senatorial 
supporters of Severus who came from 
Italy, and not from Africa or the East.
GUVERNER ZGORNJE MEZIJE IZ OBDOBJA SEPTIMIJA SEVERA
Povzetek
Spomenik 71 (1931) ni bil upoštevan v Année épigraphique, čeprav vsebuje več 
važnih napisov. Eden teh, št. 186 na str. 81 iz mesta Timaeum Minus spričuje, kot 
se da dokazati, prej neznanega konzularnega guvernerja Mezije Superior v letu 199 
po Kr. Bil je to C. Gabinius Barbarus Pompeianus, čigar domus je bila Venafrum 
v Italiji in ki je pozneje postal proconsul v Aziji pod Karakalo, zgodaj v razdobju 
med 212 in 217. Članek obravnava njegovo razmerje do drugih članov iste družine 
in predlaga alternativno rešitev k oni, ki jo je dal H.-G. Pflaum.