Tombstone of Imerix the Batavian 70-80 CE

May 12, 2020

Tombstone of Imerix the Batavian 70-80 CE

"Imerix, Servofredus'
son, a Batavian,
rider in the Eskadron
of the Spaniards,
twenty eight years old,
with eight years in military service,
is interred here."

"There is a lot to tell. To begin with, here we see two Germanic names: according to this linguistic blog the names * Īmirīkz and * Sarwafriþuz , which would mean “warlord” and “armed protection” respectively. Themically , these names fit thematically nicely with another Batavian name, namely Civilis : * Kivilaz might mean “warrior”. I believe that a fourth Batavian name, Chariovalda , means something like “leader of the army”. A quartet of warlike names says something about the self-image of such a tribe.

The inscription, which is part of the collection of the archaeological museum in Croatian Zadar, was found in Burnum. This was a Roman legion base in the first century, but auxiliary troops were also stationed there. That could be cavalry: legions had few horsemen, so a flanking squadron could be useful and the Spaniards Squadron could indeed have had such a task. It is interesting that after 86 in Burnum there were no more legions and that from then on we will find the squadron at the Lower Danube . So we can reason that Imerix died before 86.

Further precision is impossible, but speculation is of course allowed: Imerix may have been among the units involved in the Batavian Uprising (69-70), and once order had been restored, among others, by the Tenth Legion Gemina from Spain , added to a flanking unit that had come with that legion and transferred to Dalmatia after 70. Incidentally, this idea argues that the unit in the inscription has no number, which is not so common after the army reforms of Emperor Claudius (r.41-54). Perhaps Imerix lived (and died) at the time of Emperor Tiberius (r.14-37) or Caligula (r.37-41). We do not know."

-taken from lupa and mainzerbeobachter