DUNAFÖLDVÁR
County of Tolna, Hungary.
There are traces of Roman settlement everywhere in
the area. The limes road of Aquincum-Mursa led through
here. In the vineyards of Nagyhegy a votive group of
terracotta, made in honor of Mater Matuta, was discovered. The group, originating from the end of the 1st
c. B.C. or the first years of the 1st c. A.D., came to Pannonia from the shrine of Mater Matuta at Satricum in
southern Italy. In addition to being worshiped as protector of women in their first marriage and of their children, Mater Matuta was also worshiped as the goddess
of dawn's light and of harbors. Her presence suggests a
Roman port near Dunaföldvár on the Danube, even before the conquest by land of the province of Pannonia.
The objects from the Mater Matuta shrine are kept in
the museum of Szekszárd. At Dunaföldvár, in 1967, a
dredge brought to the surface an iron dagger, including its sheath, of the Julio-Claudian era, decorated with
gold, red enamel, and silver inlay. The find suggests that
a Roman flotilla guarded the Danube limes before
the land occupation. From Dunaföldvár the Hungarian
National Museum acquired a Roman shield in 1966, in
white metal and richly decorated. In addition to the vine
and ivy leaf decorations, the edge of the shield contains
several inscriptions: CASSIOPOTENTIS signifies that the first
owner of the shield belonged to the Centuria of Cassius
Potens; the other inscription on the edge, ANT ES CRESC
PROPINQVS, shows that the second owner was Crescens
Propinqus, who belonged in Antoninus' Centuria. The
shield of Dunaföldvár was made in the 2d c., either in Syria or Alexandria, in the workshop of a weapon maker
who worked according to Roman regulations.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Thomas, “Italische Mater Matuta-Votive aus Pannonien,”
Acta X. Rei Cretaricie Fautorum (1968) 56-61; id.,
Helme-Schilde-Dolche (1971).
E. B. THOMAS
