Un dispensator [f(isci) k(astrensis)?] des trois Augustes dans le port romain de Toulon (Telo Martius)
Résumé
During an excavation carried out in the old port in Toulon in 1988, among the timbers of a Roman wreck was discovered a writing tablet (tabella cerata) bearing a pyrograved inscription: Olympi Aug(ustorum trium) / n(ostrorum) v[er]nae, dis/pensato/ris [f(isci) k(astrensis)] which could be translated as : Belonging to Olympus domestic slave of the three Augustuses, treasurer to the imperial household. The document can be dated back to the joint reign of Septimius Severus, Caracalla and Geta, between autumn 197 and December 211, which corresponds to the dating of the archaeological layers where the tablet was found. This evidently belonged to an imperial slave named Olympus. He was a dispensator, which is to say, a treasurer and, after my reading of the inscription, I presume that he belonged to the department responsible for managing the funds that came in from the prince's domains and which went to pay for the upkeep of the household (the ratio castrensis). So he was therefore an important person in the emperor's retinue, who would accompany him, carrying the funds and make payments in his name. We could guess that the tablet had been lost during the three emperors' trip to Britain (between 208 and 211) when, travelling from Rome to the main royal residence at York (Eboracum), they passed through Toulon.