Cnaeus Sentius Felix

A man who played a crucial role in Ostia during the reign of Hadrian was Cnaeus Sentius Felix. His funerary inscription, set up by his son, was found in 1696 and is now in the Uffizi in Florence. The first two lines of the inscription provide information about the origin of the family. His cognomen (nickname) Felix means "Happy" and points to a servile origin. However, his name, that of his father and that of his grandfather had three components: first name, name, and nickname (praenomen, nomen and cognomen). This means that they were no longer slaves. The manumitted slave must have been his grandfather or an earlier ancestor. Felix's "tribe" was Teretina, which points to an earlier domicile of the family outside Ostia. Atina, Minturnae and Sinuessa in southern Latium have been suggested.

CN(aeo) SENTIO CN(aei) FIL(io) CN(aei) N(epoti) TER(etina) FELICI DEC(urionum) DECR(eto) AEDILICIO ADL(ecto) D(ecurionum) D(ecreto) D(ecurioni) ADL(ecto) Q(uaestori) A(erarii) OSTIENS(is) IIVIR(o) Q(uaestori) IVVENVM HIC PRIMVS OMNIVM QVO ANNO DEC(urio) ADL(ectus) EST ET Q(uaestor) A(erarii) FACT(us) EST ET IN PROXIM(um) ANNVM IIVIR DESIGNAT(us) EST QUINQ(uennali) CVRATORVM NAVIVM MARINAR(um) GRATIS ADLECT(o) INTER NAVICULAR(ios) MARIS HADRIATICI ET AD QVADRIGAM FORI VINARI PATRONO DECVRIAE SCRIBAR(um) CERARIOR(um) ET LIBRARIOR(um) ET LICTOR(um) ET VIATOR(um) ITEM PRAECONVM ET {et} ARGENTARIOR(um) ET NEGOTIATOR(um) VINARIOR(um) AB VRBE ITEM MENSOR(um) FRVMENTARIOR(um) CERERIS AVG(ustae) ITEM CORPOR(is/um) SCAPHARIOR(um) ET LENVNCVLARIOR(um) TRAIECT(us) LVCVLLI ET DENDROPHORVM ET TOGATOR(um) A FORO ET DE SACOMAR(io) ET LIBERTOR(um) ET SERVOR(um) PVBLICOR(um) ET OLEARIOR(um) ET IVVEN(um) CISIANOR(um) ET VETERANOR(um) AVG(usti) ITEM BENEFICIARIOR(um) PROC(uratoris) AVG(usti) ET PISCATOR(um) PROPOLAR(um) CVRATORI LVSVS IVVENALIS CN(aeus) SENTIVS LVCILIVS GAMALA CLODIANVS F(ilius) PATRI INDVLGENTISSIMO

To Cnaeus Sentius Felix, son of Cnaeus, grandson of Cnaeus, of the Teretina tribe. Coopted as member and in the rank of aedile by decree of the city council, treasurer of Ostia, mayor, treasurer of the youth. He was the first of all in the year that he was coopted as member of the city council to be made treasurer and to be designated as mayor for the next year. Chairman of the curators of the seagoing vessels, coopted free of charge among the skippers of the Adriatic Sea and at the four-horsed chariot of the Wine Forum, patron of the department of the wax-tablet scribes, and of the secretaries, and of the guard, and of the summoners, also of the auctioneers, and of the bankers, and of the wine merchants from the City, also of the grain-measurers of Ceres Augusta, also of the guilds of the skiffmen and of the skippers of the small boats of the Lucullus Crossing, and of the tree carriers, and of the toga-wearers from the Forum and the weighhouse, and of the public freedmen and slaves, and of the oil workers, and of the iuvenes cisianii, and of the veterans of Augustus, also of the assistants of the procurator of the Emperor, and of the fishermen and retailers, curator of the youth games. Cnaeus Sentius Lucilius Gamala Clodianus, his son, (has set up this monument) for his most indulgent father.

The funerary altar of Cnaeus Sentius Felix in the Uffizi in Florence.
EDR146430. Photo: imperium-romana.org.

The text is flanked by columns with capitals between which are acanthus leaves and two lions. On the upper part two Erotes, framed by masks, hold a laurel wreath. On stylistic grounds a date not later than the very early second century has been suggested. It is much later however: Felix is documented as patron of a guild in an inscription with the consular date 135 AD. He will have died in the years 135-150 AD.

The funerary altar was erected by his son Cnaeus Sentius Clodianus, who also appears in the inscription from 135 AD. To his name "Lucilius Gamala" had been added, and a funerary inscription has been preserved that was set up for Publius Lucilius Gamala by Clodianus. In other words, Gamala was the natural father of Clodianus, who had been adopted by Felix after the death of Gamala. This Gamala was a member of an old, distinguished Ostian family.

[ordo corporator(um) ---] QVI P[ecunia ad ampliand(um) templum contuler(unt)] PATRONI CN(aeus) SENTIVS FELIX L(ucius) MUNATIVS CASCELLIANV[s] CN(aeus) SENTIV[s] CLOD[ianus] etc.

MEMORIAE P(ubli) LVCILI GAMALAE CN(aeus) SENTIVS LVCILIVS GAMALA CLODIANVS PATRI

D(is) [M(anibus)] VERATI[ae] LACAENA[e] SENTIVS CLODI ANVS ET SENTIA CELERITAS FECERVNT

Left. The inscription mentioning Felix and his son with the consular date 135 AD (EDR110209).
Centre. The funerary inscription of Publius Lucilius Gamala set up by Felix's adopted son (EDR146424).
Right. A funerary inscription set up by Felix's adopted son and Sentia Celeritas (EDR146421).

The career of Felix is quite a puzzle. He was elected as decurio, member of the city council, and here was given the rank of former aedile, someone who had been charged with the public infrastructure and markets. This may already have taken place during the reign of Trajan. In the same year (unprecedented, the inscription says) he was put in charge of the public treasury, also becoming designate duovir, mayor, for the next year. He was in charge of the association of the youth, and at the end of the inscription we learn that he organized their periodical games. The inscription also mentions Felix's patronage of enigmatic iuvenes cisiani. The word cisianus is not known otherwise and usually equated with cisiarius, coach driver. But what should we make of "young coach drivers"?

Felix was involved with transport to and within the harbours. He was chairman of the college of curators of the sea-going ships. He joined the skippers of the Adriatic Sea, a guild based in Ostia, importing wine. He also worked at the quadriga, "the four-horse chariot", of the Wine Forum. This forum was situated in Portus. The name derives from a known sculptural group on an arch, but is perhaps to be understood here as "association of four organizations". Further on we are told that Felix was patron of the auctioneers, bankers and wine merchants from Rome. Here too we must think of activities on the Wine Forum. Still further on we learn that Felix was patron of skiffmen, presumably operating lighters, and of a ferry service, taking people from Ostia to the other side of the Tiber or all the way to Portus.

Felix was also involved, as patron, with the supporting personnel of the local administration, such as scribes, and the slaves and manumitted slaves of the city. He was patron of the dendrophori, tree-carriers. This guild was involved with the cult of Cybele, but links with the fabri, builders, and centonarii, textile workers, suggest they were also active as fire-fighters.[1] He was furthermore patron of people working with oil, not specified further, perhaps active in warehouses where oil was stored in buried jars (dolia defossa).

Yet another responsibility was that of patron of the grain measurers. This is once again the world of finances and control, finding an echo in one of the most vexed parts of the inscription, his patronage of the togati a foro et de sacomario, the enigmatic "toga-wearers from the forum and the public weighhouse". He was also patron of the fishermen who sold their own catch.

Finally two links with the Emperor are mentioned. Felix was patron of veteran soldiers, who must have settled in the area, and of assistants of an unspecified Imperial procurator. Most likely this was the procurator annonae, stationed in Ostia to organize the food supply of Rome on behalf of the praefectus annonae.

Felix's career has a strong local flavour, which at least partly explains our difficulties with understanding some parts of it. He does not seem to have had any ambition outside Ostia and Portus. It is significant that the only guild of skippers with which he was directly involved was based in Ostia. He kept his distance from the physical work and was not directly involved with the bakers, fullers, builders, and ship carpenters.

The ruins of Ostia and the Tiber seen from a plane. Photo: Paolo Fusco.

Hadrian was crucial for Ostia, and we have a few nice traces of his direct involvement. As a member of the city council Cnaeus Sentius Felix must have had countless conversations with the Imperial officials in the harbours, primarily the procurator of the food supply and the procurator of Portus. Surely he also met Hadrian, pleading for Ostia, or listening to the Emperor's instructions. We have already seen that Hadrian was at least twice duovir, which was recorded in the Annals of Ostia, a long inscription of which many fragments have been found, displayed on an unknown but prominent location. For Felix as curator of the sea-going ships a legal decision by the Emperor was most relevant. It is recorded in the corpus iuris civilis, the civil code:

Divus Hadrianus rescripsit immunitatem navium maritimarum dumtaxat habere, qui annonae urbis serviunt.	The deified Hadrian stated in a rescript that only those who serve the food supply of the city have immunity for sea-going ships.
Digesta 50.6.6.5. Translation Alan Watson.

During the reign of Hadrian a square surrounded by porticos behind the theatre was reorganized. Part of it seems to have become a formal gathering place for shippers from Africa Proconsularis, Tunisia. A triangular marble slab inscribed NAVICVLARI AFRICANI, "Shippers from Africa", was placed in the east porticus, possibly supported by two slender columns of which the bases can still be seen.

The inscription mentioning the shippers from Tunisia. Photo: Klaus Heese.

A small office on the square behind the theatre. In the foreground is a stone base, perhaps of two columns supporting the inscription.
Photo: Gerard Huissen.

Equally relevant for Felix must have been Hadrian's decision to settle Imperial tenants on land around Ostia, like a few of his predecessors. This was recorded by the agrimensores, land surveyors. Felix was patron of veterans of the Emperor.

Ostiensis ager ab impp. Vespasiano, Traiano et Hadriano, in precisuris, in lacineis, et per strigas, colonis eorum est adsignatus, sed postea impp. Verus Antoninus et Commodus aliqua privatis concesserunt.	The Ostian territory was assigned by the Emperors Vespasian, Trajan, and Hadrian to their colonists, in parcels, in small pieces, and through furrows, but later the Emperors Verus Antoninus and Commodus donated some parts to private citizens.
Liber Coloniarum 1, 236. Translation Brian Campbell.

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(1) It would take up too much space to summarize the issue here. See for example D. Rohde, "Individuum - collegium - Stadtgemeinde. Das Integrationspotenzial kaiserzeitlicher collegia am Beispiel der ostiensischen fabri tignuarii", Omni historia curiosus, Wiesbaden 2011, 79-93.