Other Sources

Incomplete Fragment xxxv in the Fasti Ostienses

Guidoboni et. al. (1994:232) note that this earthquake may have been mentioned in the very incomplete Fragment xxxv in the Fasti Ostienses

English

[---] Vestal virgin [---] there was an [earthqu]ake [---1, of Quintus Asinius Mar[cellus ---].

Latin

[---]rinu[---J / v(irgo) V(estalis) [terrae m]otus fuit [---1 Q(uinti) Asini Mar[celli ---] / [---11-[---?]

Barbieri (1970, pp.263-5, 272-3, 276) has studied this much debated fragment and the substantial earlier bibliography in extreme detail, and suggests completing its five lines as set out below. He thinks the first line refers to a consul from the third and last pair for the year 115, namely Pompeius Macrinus — who is probably also referred to in the Fasti Potentini (from Potenza Picena, near Porto Recanati), though it, too, is a very fragmentary document:

English

[On the Calends of September] M. Pomp[eius Mac]rinu[s, ---1.

Latin

[k. Sept.] M. Pomp[eius Mac]rinu[s, ---].

The second line seems to refer to the death or sentencing of an unidentified Vestal virgin. Barbieri has suggested the Lepida in CIL 6.5477, but there are other possibilities, since the form of the first letter of the name suggests either an I or an N. The earthquake referred to in the third line seems to be the one which struck Antioch in that same year 115, and it is probably recorded in the inscription because it caused the death of a number of people in the retinue of the emperor Trajan. It is unlikely, therefore, to be the hypothetical earthquake in the Ostia area — which is in any case not attested in any other sources — as previously suggested by Burnand (1984, pp.176-7, no.10) and in Catalogo epigrafi (1989, p.144).

The fourth and fifth lines are taken to record the death of the praefectus urbi, Q.Asinius Marcellus, and his replacement by Q.Baebius Macer:

English

Q.Baebius Macer was appointed to replace Q.Asinius Marcellus as praefectus urbi.

Latin

in locu]m Q. Asini Mar[celli praef urb. f(actus) Q. Bae/bins Mace]r.

Barbieri has read the last letter of the fifth line as an R, whereas it had previously been interpreted as an A (CIL 14.4542) or an X.

Other Sources - Ambraseys (2009) and Guidoboni et al (1994)

Ambraseys (2009) notes that the earthquake is recorded by a number of later Syriac chroniclers who add no further information. Ambraseys (2009) and Guidoboni et al (1994) list other sources which mention this earthquake.

• Chr. 724 121/95 - This is the same reference as Chronicon by Eusebius (Ambraseys, 2009)
• Zon. 11.22.18