The Baths of Trajan Decius — or of Philip the Arab?

Only one known inscription unquestionably refers to the baths of Decius. It is a bronze slave collar found at Tolentino, some 150 km northeast of Rome, near the Via Flaminia.¹⁵
“FUGITI

BUS SO REVO

CA ME IN ABEN

TINO IN DOMU

POTITI · VC

AD DECIA

     NAS”

“I am a runaway. Return me to the house of Potitus, vir clarissimus, on the Aventine near the [Baths] of Decius.”

CIL XV, 7181

Although it offers moving testimony about one individual’s quest for freedom, this inscription adds only a little to our stock of information about the Baths of Decius. An aristocratic domus was situated nearby. This may have been in the second half of the 4th c., if we assume that the owner, Potitus, was the same individual as the vicarius urbis of 379/80.¹⁶

La Follette discusses eleven other inscriptions in connection with the Baths of Decius.¹⁷ One of these, CIL VI, 1165, bears no plausible connection to the baths, as the author herself points out.¹⁸ Of the remaining ten, two are dated to the urban prefecture of Caecina Decius Aginatius Albinus (414-15 C.E.).¹⁹

SALVIS · AC FLORENTIBVS · DD NN · HONORIO · ET · THEODOS[io]

PERPETVIS · SEMPER · AVGG · CAECINA DECIVS ACINATIVS

ALBINVS · V · C · PRAEF · VRBI · VICE SACRA IVDICANS

CELLAM TEPIDARIAM · INCLINATO · OMNI PARIETE LABENT[em]

DE · QVA CELLARVM RVINA PENDEBAT ERECTORVM · A FV[n] DAMENTIS · ARCVVM DUPLICI MVNITIONE FULCIVIT

     D · N · M · Q · EORUM

CIL VI, 1659

     SALVIS · DD · NN

HONORIO · ET · THEODOSIO

PP · FF · SEMP · AVGG ·

CAECINA DECIVS

ACINATIVS · ALBINVS

V · C · PRAEF · VRBI

FACTO A SE ADIECIT

     ORNATVI

CIL VI, 1703

Both inscriptions commemorate building repairs. The first, which mentions a cella tepidaria, undoubtedly refers to a bath. CIL VI, 1659 was found in the Cavalletti vineyard on the Aventine; CIL VI, 1703 “between the Tiber and the Aventine.” So the two inscriptions are likely to have come from one of the two bath complexes on the Aventine, the thermae Decianae or the thermae Suranae. In each case the reported findspot fits better with the presumed location of the thermae Suranae, but the stones may have been moved from their original positions, so this is not decisive.²⁰ Lanciani speculated that there may have been a connection between the 3rd-c. emperor Decius and his 5th-c. namesake, a member of the distinguished family of the Ceionii Rufii.²¹ It is possible that a 5th-c. nobleman adopted the name Decius and claimed a family connection (surely fictitious) with the 3rd-c. emperor.²² But it is equally or perhaps even more likely that the name was meant to invoke the prestige of the heroic Republican Decii. In any case, the name cannot be used as evidence that these inscriptions came from the Baths of Decius without circular reasoning. Moreover, we need not have recourse to Lanciani’s hypothesis to provide Caecina Decius Aginatius Albinus with a motive for improving baths on the Aventine. An inscribed lead pipe found near the church of S. Alessio suggests that Albinus’ family owned property on the western edge of the hill.²³ What could be more natural for a Roman nobleman than to finance repairs to public baths near his own town house, where his munificence would not only increase his prestige but could also be enjoyed directly by his family and retainers?

Another inscription is unpublished. La Follette saw it immured in the Cortile Torlonia on the Aventine. The stone, as presented by La Follette, reads:

     dd. nn.

     thermas dec[

     vicini par[

     solo strat[

     et porticu[

²⁴

La Follette claims that it “refers clearly to the Baths of Decius,”²⁵ but this is not strictly speaking correct. Supplementing line 2 as thermas dec[ianas] is an strong possibility, suggested by the current location of the stone. But a form of the verb decorare is also a possible reading of the fragmentary word at the end of line 2 (compare the inscription from the Maritime Baths at Ostia: CIL XIV, 137). All we know for certain is that the stone records repairs or additions to a bath--either the Decian Baths or, possibly, the Baths of Sura--executed during a period of joint imperial rule.

Seven statue bases with inscriptions dating from the 4th through the 6th centuries were also found on the Aventine.²⁶ These suggest that in this period the Baths of Decius may have housed a series of honorary portrait statues, though again it is possible that some or all of these bases came originally from the thermae Suranae.