SANCTUARY OF THE NUTRICES

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SANCTUARY OF THE NUTRICES

The Nutrices, the divine wet nurses, protected the health of children and were guardians of families. They were extremely popular in Poetovio and their roots reach back to the pre-Roman, Celtic world. All classes of the population turned to them for the protection of children.

Votive inscriptions testify that somewhere at Panorama a sanctuary of the Nutrices stood in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. In the second half of the 3rd century, their worship ceased, while in the Late Roman period (at the end of the 4th or in the first half of the 5th century) seven marble slabs from the sanctuary were used to line one of the graves on the northern slope of Panorama.

The majority of depictions on the slabs from Panorama follow the same pattern. The goddess Nutrix sits on the right and breastfeeds a child, an altar is in front of her. A mother with a child is approaching from the left, followed by a servant bearing gifts on her head.

^{A damaged votive slab made of marble. The Nutrices were honoured by Lucius Fuscinius Exsuperatus, a priest of the imperial cult (augustalis) in Poetovio, and Aelia Honorata for the health of their son Fuscinius Honoratus. The slab was made in the mid-2nd century.}

^{NUTRICIBUS AUG(ustis) SACRUM. L(ucius) FUSC(inius)}
^{EXSUPERATUS, AUG(ustalis) COL(oniae) POET(ovionensium) E͡T}
^{[Ae?]LIA HONORATA PRO SALUTE}
^{[. F]USCINI HONORATI FIL(ii) V(otum) S(olverunt).}

^{Translation: Dedicated to the Nutrices Augustae. Lucius Fuscinius Exsuperatus, a priest of the imperial cult (augustalis) in the colony of Poetovio, and Aelia (?) Honorata fulfilled their vow for the health of their son Fuscinius Honoratus.}

^{A damaged votive slab made of marble. Aelia Vera had it made for the Nutrices to thank them for the health of her daughter Antonia and son Antonius. Middle or the second half of the 2nd century.}

^{[Nutricib(us)] AUG(ustis) AELIA VERA}
^{[pro salute ? — ]IAR(—) ANTONIAE F(iliae)}
^{[— Anto]NI FILI(i) V(otum) S(olvit) L(ibens) M(erito).}

^{Translation: To Nutrices Augustae Aelia Vera for the health (?) … for daughter Antonia … and for son Antonius fulfilled her vow willingly and deservedly.}