AJKA
County of Veszprém, Hungary.
A
Roman grove shrine erected by Sextus Acurius and his
wife Iulia Prisca. Their names suggest Dalmatian origins.
The couple erected a statue and altar to Hercules and
placed their tombstone—prepared in advance—here also.
The tombstone's inscription is . . . DEXTER AN . . . SIBI
ET COI IVLIAE PR ISCE AN. . . . The blank spaces left for
the date show that the tombstone was never used. The
statue, three-quarters life size and made of limestone,
depicts Hercules Commodus; it is the only known example of the Caesar cult of inner Pannonia and is a work
typical of a provincial Pannonian sculptor. The sandstone altar that was unearthed has the inscription HERCVLI
P. SEX. ACVRIVS DEXTER. The artifacts of the shrine were
made between the last decade of the 2d c. and the first
decade of the 3d. The shrine was destroyed following
15 May 319, when Constantine forbade the practice of
pagan cults. The artifacts of the Hercules shrine are in
the Lapidarium of the museum at Tihany.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Thomas, “Ein Heiligtum des Hercules aus Pannonien,”
Arch. Ért. (1952) 108-12; id. &
T. Szentléleky,
Führer durch die Archäologischen Sammlungen des Bakonyer Museums in Veszprém (1959).
E. B. THOMAS
