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From Salona to the Milky Way — The Epitaph of Constantina(?) from Manastirine

The inscription on a late antiquity Salona sarcophagus of a girl of imperial family named after the emperor Constantius contains in its 5th line a clear reference to the abode of the blessed located in the Galaxy. This is a truly ancient tenet that can be traced back to the rather elusive Pythagoreans (5th c. BC?), but is for the first time positively attested in the work of Heraclides Ponticus of the 4th c. BC. Its appearance a full millennium later is interpreted in terms of late Roman antiquarianism, rather than as an article of current pagan belief. The interpretations based on the latter favour the association of the girl and her epitaph with Constantius Chlorus and the early 4th c., but the interpretation offered here favours the period after the final and complete victory of Christianity, i.e. the 420s or 430s, thus positing an association with Flavius Constantius as a more probable candidate for the “Constantius” of the inscription. The tenet from line 5 is placed in the context of the literary works of such authors as Macrobius and Martianus Capella, and it is explained in terms of antiquarianism of the Roman — all Christian — upper class of the 430s.

Salona, epitaph, Galaxy, antiquarianism, Flavius Constantius

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