Titus Flavius Valens
(0054) Text: Τίτος Φλ(άουιος) Οὐάλ[ης] ἀπὸ (δεκαδάρχων) | Ο(ὐαλεντείνῃ) Ἰ(ουλίᾳ) γ(υναικὶ) ε(ὐσεβεστάτῃ)
Translation: Titus Flavius Valens former decurion, for his pious wife Julia Valentina. (Trans. Christopher B. Zeichmann)
Commentary: Titus Flavius Valens is known from another Greek inscription (§55). Beit Nattif is located roughly 20 km from both Khirbet ‘Arak Hala (which garrisoned alae Antiana Gallorum et Thracum) and Jerusalem (which garrisoned legio X Fretensis). It is likely that Titus Flavius Valens was in one of these units. Note that there is a different reading of the last line: φῖγε (i.e., “stay away!”). Werner Eck in CIIP also contends that Titus Flavius Valens must have been in a cohors equitata, given that he is a decurion in a cohors. If so, this would mean the inscription must have been erected after the Bar Kokhba War, as the only cohortes equitatae in Judaea are attested in the post-Bar Kokhba period.
Provenience: Beit Nattif, Palestine 70-150 CE
Bibliography: IGR 3.1207; CIIP 3297