Posebnosti autohtonih kultova u rimskoj Istri

Abstract

Over the course of the last century, interest in cults in the territory of Istria and the Kvarner islands during classical antiquity (the Roman era) has grown steadily. Previous research has shown the deep roots of spiritual culture in the life of the  omanized Histrian, Histro-Venetian and Liburnian populations, which systematically influenced many segments of their social, political and economic life. Throughout history, cults have existed as a part of religious rites in all societies. They have been a component of the organization of human life and they have expressed beliefs, ways to serve and revere deities, forms of  behaviour and grounds upon which institutions, customs and values were built. It is very difficult to comprehend the activities of human beings without a deeper understanding of their cults in various historical periods. Archaeology, onomastics, and
toponomastics, as well as the interpretation of cults through the evolution of autochthonous Greek and Roman mythologies and their profusion by syncretism, provide us with valuable comparative knowledge on the existence of Roman-era belief systems in Istria. I attempted to throw some light only on some of the more important questions tied to the problem of cults in Istria during classical antiquity, although some of the brief commentaries on individual cults or cult communities and cult  entres indicate important links and considerations of religious and spiritual influences on the life of Roman Istria’s residents on  the border between East and West, within the sphere of the emergence and development of Christianity and the gradual decay  of the Roman Empire. While studying cults within the framework of social and political changes in Istria as part of the Tenth Italic region of Venetia et Histria and part of the province of Dalmatia (the Istrian part of Liburnia) from the Roman Republic to  the fall of the Empire, I attempted to observe and clarify the role of each individual cult object (votive altars, votive plates,  statues, etc.) and systematize them within the framework of observable cult groups of deities that were present in the spiritual culture and religion of Istria autochthonous deities. Autochthonous deities, within the geopolitical zone encompassed by Istria in classical antiquity, were revered in the area south of Limska Draga to the Raša River (Arsia f.), and in the narrow north- eastern coastal belt up to Trsat (Tarsatica). After the imperial border moved from the Rižana (Formio f.) to the Raša River (Arsia  f.), concluding in 12 BC, the same autochthonous deities continued to be revered in Istria as part of the Tenth Italic region only  in the Pula ager (ager Polensis) with one exception in Poreč (Parentium) and in Liburnia from the Raša River to Trsat (Tarsatica).  This geographic and historical division lasted until the third century AD, when the Empire’s border was moved to Trsat, and in this manner the geopolitical concept of the Istrian peninsula was consolidated until the fall of the Roman Empire. 
A concentration of reverence and distribution of cults is noticeable around the colony of Pula (Pola), the municipiums of Nezakcij (Nesactium), Labin (Albona) and Plomin (Flanona) with individual finds in the colony of Poreč (Parentium) and on the border of Histria Septemtrionalis, west of the Raša River (Arsia f.). A total of fourteen local deities (31 monuments) were ascertained and registered, of which thirteen are female and one male. Female deities: Aitica, Boria, Eia, Eia Augusta, Histria, Istria, Histria Terra, Iria Venus, Iria, Nebres, Sentona, Seixomnia Leucitica, Iutossica, Trita, Trita Augusta, Ica and Ika Augusta.
Expressed in percentages, 93% of the deities are female, and 7% male, which means that women’s cults account for 90% of the stone monuments with votive significance, while male cults account for 10%. The dedicants to these deities mostly had Greek or
oriental names and some of them italic once, and as a rule they were slaves or freed slaves, which means that they were people  who resettled in Istria and placed their fate in the hands of domestic deities, which probably have similar or the same attributes as those in their original homelands. The praehistoric sculture group of the women delievering the child and the  horseman: Aitica, Ika, Sentona are the god with some relief representation that can determine their significance as the deities  of fertility, family and the protectress of olive trees, craps, water and springs. It is believed that by this act, the aforementioned
social structure of Roman Istria’s population resisted administrative Romanization of the Istrian peninsula. Reverence for local deities can be followed until the beginning of the fourth century AD.