Stamped tile, Carteia (San Roque), Hispania Baetica Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL AN1939.87.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum AN1939.87 AshLI 299 Coll. Ref: 3

Tilestamp (0.17+ 0.155+ 0.039 (ridge), 0.03)

A rectangular stamp (0.035 0.11+), damaged on the left side, with two lines of text in hollowed letters. There are round interpuncts. The right side preserves the edge of the tile.

 0.014-0.012 (line 1); 0.014 (line 2). 45 BC (Degrassi in ILLRP, 1963) or 15/14 BC (Gonzalez 1989). This tile-stamp is a fragmentary example of a type found at the site of Carteia (El Rocadillo), in the Roman province of Baetica (southern Spain). According to the Ashmolean MS. Accessions Register, it was given to the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum in 1865 by Col. Crealock (Hübner 1892: p.1004 ad n.4967, recorded that Haverfield had informed him that an example of this stamp had been presented to Salisbury Museum in 1865). It must then have been transferred to the Blackmore Museum of Salisbury, founded in 1867, which was managed by the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, since it was subsequently presented to the Ashmolean by the Blackmore Museum when some of its collections were dispersed in the 1930s, before the name of that museum was itself discarded in 1968. photograph photograph
Marcus Petrucidius Marci filius legatus pro praetore Marcus Licinius

Marcus Petrucidius, son of Marcus, propraetorian legate. Marcus Licinius.

Many examples of this tile-stamp have been found in Carteia and other places in Baetica (CIL I 2298a; AE 1952, 111; AE 1982, 546), including during excavations there (1972/73) in the Cortijo de El Rocadillo and (1974/75) in the area of the Torre Cartagena (Feraudi). On one interpretation, M. Licinius was legate of the proconsul M. Petrucidius in Baetica, 45 BC (Alföldy 1969: p.174), but this seems an odd reading of the word order here and is also disproved by the other examples of similar stamps which have a different second name (including Alexander and Cn. Tarq(uinius): Gonzalez 1989: p.518, p.521). More likely is that the title of legate belongs to M. Petrucidius, but this raises further questions about his identity and chronology: the majority view is that he was legate of Cn. Pompeius the Younger (elder son of Pompeius Magnus) in charge of securing Carteia for the Pompeian side in 45 BC in the civil war against Caesar (Dessau 1913: 505-508; Broughton (1952) vol.2, p.312; Degrassi in ILLRP 1963 ad loc.; Wiseman (1971) p.250 no.316, who adds ‘but he could be Augustan’). Thus, Licinius is named as the individual responsible for the tile manufacturing or for the building-contract in question (and other individuals are similarly named on stamps from other sites in Baetica: see AE 1990 no.531). Gonzalez, however, has argued (1989) that he should be dated to the Augustan era (see summary of this debate in PIR2 P333), and that Petrucidius was sent by Augustus on a special mission in 15/14 BC to help re-energise the cities of Baetica following the civil wars. This would fit with the widespread distribution of the stamps in various cities of Baetica (Ilipa, Hasta Regia, Siarum, and Italica, in addition to Carteia), but is perhaps too ready to see Augustus as proactively promoting urbanization in Baetica.

CIL II 4967, 1 (1869) [Hübner]; CIL II p.1004, ad n.4967 (1892) [Hübner] for this example; Dessau (1913); Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities MS. Accession Register 1939.87; ILLRP no.1172 (Degrassi, 1963); Gonzalez (1982) no.89

Online: Hispania Epigraphica no.1693 [accessed 05/11/15]; EDCS-20301610 [accessed 11/06/15]; HD000936 (Feraudi, 30/12/13) [accessed 11/06/15]

Alföldy G. 1969 Fasti Hispanienses. Senatorische Reichsbeamte und Offiziere in den spanischen Provinzen des römischen Reiches von Augustus bis Diokletian Franz Steiner Wiesbaden Broughton T.R.S. 19525 The Magistrates of the Roman Republic New York American Philogical Association Dessau H. 1913 De tegulis quibusdam in Baetica repertis Ephemeris Epigraphica 9 505-508 Gonzalez J. 1982 Inscripciones romanas de la provincia de Cadiz Cadiz Diputación de Cádiz Gonzalez J. 1989 M. Petrucidius M.f. legatus pro pr Athenaeum 67 517-23 Wiseman T.P. 1971 New Men in the Roman Senate 139-BC-AD 14 Oxford Oxford University Press