Graham, Alexander: Roman Africa: an outline of the history of the Roman occupation of North Africa ; based chiefly upon inscriptions and monumental remains in that country (London [u.a.], 1902)

Africa under Marcus Aurelius

195

The fall of Commodus was followed by the short rule of his
two successors, Julian and Pertinax, whose place in African
history is almost a blank. The name of the former is not
recorded in a single inscription, although he had rendered
himself conspicuous for an active career of about seven months.
But Pertinax occupies a position of high distinction, and, not-
withstanding his short rule of scarcely three months, adorned
the throne of the Csesars with the nobility of a true Roman.
An African by birth, a native of Hadrumetum, but probably of
Latin descent, he was deservedly honoured by his countrymen
for patriotic conduct and a blameless career, and, as Dion
Cassius informs us, his statue of gold was set up in the Circus
Maximus as a permanent testimony of public esteem. Among
the inscriptions in North Africa in which the name of Pertinax
appears, there is one on a milliarium at Sba-Meghata, on the
banks of the river El-Kantara, and on the high road from Lam-
ba^sis.1 The other, bearing the same date, A.D. 192, is the
dedication of an altar to the Emperor by the colonists on one
of the African estates.2

CE AVG P P TRIB P

O LEG AVG PR
PR A LAMBESE
M P LVIIII

COS II L NAEVIO
QVADRATIAN

IMP CAES P HE
LVIO PERTINA

PRO SALVTE
IMP CAESAR IS
P HEL PERTINA
CIS TRIBVNICIE PO
TESTATIS COS II PP
COLON I DOMINI N
CAPVT SALTVS HOR
REOR PARDALARI HA
NC ARAM POSVERVNT
ET D • D

1 I.R.A. No. 4305. L. Renier, Archives des Missions, v. 11, p. 446.

2 C.I.L. No. 8425. Poulle, Rec. de Const. 1873-74, p. 363.

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