Dediche di militari traci in greco nella Roma di età imperiale

This paper analyses three Greek votive dedications by Thracian soldiers from imperial Rome. They belong to a very limited group of dedications in Greek by soldiers enrolled in the troops of the capital (just six in number to my knowledge), and are the only known Greek inscriptions set up in Rome by individuals from Thrace. As far as concerns the recipient gods (and divine epithets) as well as their iconographical features, these three dedications, which were set up by two praetorians and one frumentarius, do not differ from the other (Latin) dedications by soldiers from the Balkan-Danubian area found in the Urbs. What sets them apart is the use of Greek, which was the most widespread language in Roman Thrace. It is my contention that in this specific case language was consciously used as a medium for the expression of the dedicants’ ethnic and cultural identity.