Una inscripción de época Republicana dedicada a Salaecvs en la región minera de Carthago Nova

Abstract

In this paper we study an unpublished votive inscription from Mina Mercurio (in Portman, Cartagena), exhibited at the Aguilas Archaeological Museum. It is dedicated by freedmen from the gens Roscia, a well-known family of negotiators who used to sign the argentiferous galena ingot hallmark found in Cabezo Rajao in La Unión around 1846. It is one of the oldest inscriptions found in the area of Carthago Noua, and thus, in the whole Hispania. It is dated at the end of the 2nd century or very beginning of the 1st century b.c., especially with the use of an archaic plural nominative in -es. It is dedicated to Salaecus, a vocative etymologically related to water and the sea. For this reason and because of the place where it was found, it might refer to the Roman god Neptune or to a Hispanic deity related to water.