§55 Titus Flavius Valens

Titus Flavius Valens

(0055) Text: Τί(τος) Φλ(άουιος) Οὐάλης Φιλη[…] | ἀπὸ (δεκαδάρχων) σπείρης ἐπο(ί)ησ(ε) | ἐν τοῖς ἰδίοις ἑαυτῷ | καὶ Ἰουλιᾳ Οὐαλεντεί- | νῃ εὐσεβεστάτῃ γυναικὶ αὐτ[οῦ].

Translation: Titus Flavius Valens son of Phile[…] former decurion of the cohort. He made this on his own property for himself and for his pious wife Julia Valentina. (Trans. Christopher B. Zeichmann)

Commentary: Titus Flavius Valens is known from another Greek inscription (§54). 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. 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 3.1208; CIIP 3297