Statue, colore e ritratti nell’occidente tardoromano. Su una perduta iscrizione di Aquino

A base from Roccasecca (FR), now lost, showed traces of two different ancient inscriptions. The first one is a dedication to Ceres by a certain Iuvenalis, usually identified in the famous Roman poet. The second (CIL X 5426), surely engraved when the stone was reused, is a dedication to an anonymous patron of Aquinum. Language and formulary suggest to date the latter not earlier than the IIId century. This paper focuses on the curious expression used in CIL X 5426 to describe the honour awarded by the people of Aquinum to their patron: statua perpetuabilis cum pictura similitudinis eius. Two different explanations are considered: (1) this expression refers to a single object, that is, to a painted statue, where colour was used – as stressed by the text – in order to obtain, or to better characterize, the portrait (similitudo) of the awarded; (2) this expression refers to two separate objects, an ordinary statue, and a painted ‘honorary’ portrait (honorary portraits are common in the Greek part of the empire but scarcely attested in the Latin West). The paper aims at showing that both solutions have interesting implications for the history of honorary practices in the later Roman period.