A tall base of fine limestone is now in the museum of Stara Zagora, the ancient Ulpia Augusta Traiana.

Base for statue of Aspar: front view of the monument

When it was first recorded in 1962, it was said to have been used as a fountain; a round hole on the front side with traces of rust, which is clearly visible in the image above, presumably date from this use. This humble final use did not do credit to its noble beginnings, as one of the very last statues set up in the Balkans to the greatest military commander of the age.

The base was already reused to take our inscription; the field bearing the inscription was slightly cut back from the original surface. The inscription is in Greek, in six lines, the first line containing a blessing in prose, and the rest a two-line distich laid out over five lines.

Base for statue of Aspar, detailed view of the inscription

Verse form is a striking feature of honorific inscriptions in late antiquity (c. 300-600), but was rarely used earlier for this kind of inscription. Verse inscription with their poetic language play on the education of the cultivated public they address; for modern scholars, however, they are notoriously vague in the information they provide. Our inscription tells us that the base once supported the bronze statue of a certain Aspar who was strong in war and a fearless soldier, and that the statue was set up by the city of Ulpia Traiana.

A bronze statue was a rare and precious honour, undoubtedly for a man of outstanding reputation. We would very much like to know who this Aspar was, and when the inscription was set up. The only known soldier of this name was a very prominent military officer in the Eastern Empire during the 5th century, Flavius Ardabur Aspar, and we believe that it is to him that this base, with its bronze statue, were erected. Aspar was the highest ranking general of the emperor Theodosius II (402-50). He held the lifelong honorific title of patricius, and, after a campaign in Africa, was awarded the consulship in 434, the highest honour any man could achieve. Ardabur’s consulship was commemorated with a beautiful silver plate (a missorium), presently at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Florence, where both Ardabur Aspar and his son (Ardabur iunior) are represented.

   

 

Piatto di ardaburio, argento fuso, 434 d.c. (found in 1769)

Piatto di ardaburio, argento fuso, 434 d.c. (found in 1769) 01

• Created at: 2008-12-20 22:47:28
• Description: Piatto di ardaburio, argento fuso, 434 d.c. (found in 1769)
• Artist: sailko
• License: cc-by-2.5

 

Aspar was present when Theodosius II on his death-bed named Marcian, a former officer under Aspar, as his successor. Aspar himself was offered the throne by the Senate of Constantinople after Marcian’s death, but instead proposed his subordinate Leo I. His son Patricius became Caesar and married Leo’s younger daughter Leontia; at this time, his position was ‘quasi-imperial’. A medieval source (the eighth-century Parastaseis) informs us that an equestrian statue to him was set up in Constantinople on the Forum of Theodosius, one of the noblest squares in the city and the location for the dynastic display of the Theodosian dynasty. Aspar’s high status, however, came to a bad end when he was murdered in 471 at the instigation of the emperor Leo I.

Nothing is known that links Aspar with the city of Ulpia Traiana, and, indeed, his only recorded military activity in the Balkans was a command in Thrace in 466/7 against Goths and Huns. Was the statue a reward for an outstanding favour to the city on that occasion?