Rome and the East
which were copies of ancient ones.’’^26 It is far from clear what this means.
Were they copies of classical Greek sculptures (like the statue of Augustus in
his temple at Caesarea, modelled on Pheidias’ Zeus at Olympia, and theRōmē
modelled on the Hera from Argos)?^27 Or something like the bronze statues
of figures from Greek mythology, installed in the early second century at the
new baths in Apamea on the Orontes?^28 Or were these images ones which
more specifically recalled the Roman character and origins of the city?
The latter is not impossible. For, while there is every reason to presume
that the newcoloniaincorporated the existing inhabitants of Berytus and its
hinterland as far as Anti-Lebanon, and while it is generally characteristic of
those Romancoloniaein the Greek East whose epigraphy has been studied
that the use of the Greek language steadily reasserted itself,^29 it is very dis-
tinctive of Berytus that its Roman and Latin character was heavily empha-
sised from the beginning and remained clearly visible at least until the fourth
century. The city’s public use of Latin is for instance still embodied in an in-
scription of.., from the base of a statue at Berytus representing Flavius
Domitius Leontius, praetorian prefect andconsul ordinarius:ordo Berytiorum
statuam sumptibus suis ex aere locatam civili habitu dedicavit.^30 Without unneces-
sarily multiplying examples, the public use of Latin there can easily be traced
back through the Tetrarchic (CILIII ^7 ) and Severan^31 periodstothe
second century. It was then, as it seems, that for instance M. Sentius Procu-
lus was a decurion andduumvir, and subsequently embarked on an equestrian
career before entering the Senate, and being honoured aspatronus coloniae
with at least two statues, as their bases, inscribed in Latin, attest.^32 From the
second half of the first century a Latin inscription records the restoration by
Agrippa II and Berenice of a building whose name is lost[q]uod rex Herodes,
proavos eorum fecerat, adorned with marble and columns (AE, ).
Yet another Latin inscription comes from an altar dedicated to the For-
tuna of the Genius of the Colonia by M. Iulius Avidius from Emesa, who
. Josephus,Ant. , –:καὶτὴνπᾶσανδὲπόλινἀνδριάντωνἀναθέσεσινκαὶταῖς
τῶνἀρχαίωνἀποτύποιςεἰκόσινἐκόσμει.
. Josephus,BJ, .
.AE, .
. For thecoloniaein Pisidia, see Levick (n. ), chaps. –; for Corinth, seeCorinth
VIII.:The Inscriptions, –(), –.
.ILS.
. See, e.g.,Bull. Mus. Beyrouth (–): , no. AE, , a dedication to
Iulia Domna.
. See R. Cagnat, ‘‘M. Sentius Proculus de Beyrouth,’’Syria (): ;AE, ;
H. Devijver,Pros. milit. Equestr. II, S. .