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The Gravestone of M. Favonius Facilis at Colchester

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

E. J. Phillips
E. J. Phillips
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
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Extract

The gravestone of a centurion of the Twentieth Legion, M. Favonius Facilis, which was found in the Roman cemetery at Colchester to the south-west of the colonia in 1868 is of particular interest for the history of Romano-British art, since it is one of the earliest sculptures known in the province. It is carved of Bath oolite and bears in a round-arched niche a full-length figure of Facilis (PL. IX), who is bare-headed but is otherwise dressed in the complete uniform of a centurion and carries a uitis in his right hand. Below the niche is the inscription, which reads: M(arcus) Fauoni(us) M(arci) f(ilius) Pol(lia tribu) Faci/lisc(enturio) leg(ionis) xx. Verecund/us et Nouicius lib(erti) posu/erunt. h(ic) s(itus) e(st).

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 6 , November 1975 , pp. 102 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © E. J. Phillips 1975. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Hübner, E., Archäologische Zeitung xxvi (1868), 112Google Scholar; Trans. Essex Arch. Soc.1 iv (1869), 279Google Scholar; Pollexfen, J. H., PSA2 iv (1869), 271–3Google Scholar; Grover, J. W., JBAA xxvi (1870), 240–1; CIL vii, 90Google Scholar; Watkin, W. T., Arch. Journ. xxxvi (1877), 81Google Scholar; Haverfield, F. J. and Jones, H. S. Stuart, JRS ii (1912). 124Google Scholar; C. F. C. Hawkes and M. R. Hull, Camulodunum (1947), 18; M. R. Hull, Roman Colchester (1958), 254; Webster, G., Arch. Journ. cxv (1958), 61Google Scholar; Richmond, I. A., VCH Essex iii (1963), 2–4Google Scholar; M. R. Hull, ibid., 114; J. M. C. Toynbee, Art in Roman Britain ed. 2 (1963), 157, No. 81; eadem, Art in Britain under the Romans (1964), 185; RIB 200.

2 E. B. Birley, Roman Britain and the Roman Army (1953), 104–24, argues against the theory of a predominantly Italian centurionate.

3 J. W. Kubitschek, Imperium Romanum Tributim Discriptum (1889), 262, 271; L. R. Taylor, The Voting Districts of the Roman Republic (1960), 154–5.

4 CIL xi, 6805.

5 Cf. e.g. CIL v, 936, 1079, 1092.

6 G. E. Rizzo, Prassitele (1932), pls. CXIII-IV.

7 E. Espérandieu, Recueil général des bas-reliefs, statues et busies de la Gaule romaine (1907–38), 6581, although only a half-figure, is clearly of this type and is closely dated by the reference in the inscription to the Varian disaster of A.D. 9. The gravestone of the Gessii, which is of Republican date and is now in Boston, has a bust of a man in a cuirass with the end of a cloak dangling over his left shoulder: Greek and Roman Portraits, Museum of Fine Art 1959, pis. 30–1; Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (ed. H. Temporini), i, part 4 (1973), Tafeln, pp. 166, 230.

8 G. M. A. Richter, Three Critical Periods of Greek Sculpture (1951), fig. 113. The figure of Mars on the ‘Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus’ is also of this type; see H. Kähler, Seethiasos und Census, die Reliefs aus dem Palazzo Santa Croce in Rom (1966), pl. 9.

9 Richter, op. cit. (note 8), figs. III-2. According to Pliny, NH xxxiv, 18, cuirass statues were invented by the Romans, but they are regarded as a Greek invention by J. Marcadé, Au Musée de Délos (1969), 328–33.

10 Richmond, op. cit. (note 1), 3.

11 Macdonald, G., JRS xvi (1926), 3–7; J. M. C. Toynbee, Art in Roman Britain ed. 2 (1963), 123, No. 1, pl. 7.Google Scholar

12 J. M. C. Toynbee, Art in Britain under the Romans (1964), 184.

13 Franzoni, L., Ritrattistica funeraria in Verona romana, estratto dalle Memorie delta Accademia patavina di SS. LL. AA. 68 (1955–1956), 14–17, No. 9.Google Scholar

14 G. A. Mansuelli, Le stele romane del territorio ravennate e del Basso Po (1967), 166–7, No. 92, fig. 104.

15 Toynbee, locc. citt. (note 1).

16 G. A. Mansuelli in Arte e civiltà romana nell' Italia settentrionale (ed. M. Vergnani) (1965), ii, 19.

17 For the conch cf. e.g. Espérandieu, op. cit. (note 7), 5850, 6207, 6463, 6589, Germanie 59; Germania Romana2 iii (1926), pl. xi, figs. 1, 4; for the spandrels, Espèrandieu, 5785, 5798, 5802, 5852, 6033, 6207, 6259, 6341, Germanie 11, 16, 454–5; for the edging decoration, Esperandieu, 5850, 6440, Germanie 11; Germania Romana2 iii, pl. 111, fig. 1.Google Scholar

18 E.g. Espérandieu, 6669; J. M. C. Toynbee, op. cit. (note 11), pl. 90.

19 J. M. C. Toynbee, op. cit. (note 12), 184.

20 J. M. C. Toynbee, op. cit. (note 11), 158, No. 83, suggests that the contemporary or near contemporary gravestone of Longinus at Colchester may be a product of the same workshop. Certainly Rhineland influence can be detected in its elaborate acroterial motifs and the representation of the cavalryman and, as Professor Toynbee observes, the high quality of execution may betray the hand of a legionary, rather than an auxiliary, artist.