• 1 I am grateful to dr Miomir Korać, the director of the scientific project Viminacium, for enabling m (...)
• 2 Popović, 1996, cat. 139‑142 (with analogies).
• 3 Dimitrova, 1969, p. 43‑50; Dimitrova-Milcheva, 1981, p. 19‑20; Popović, 1989, p. 9‑12; 51‑54.
• 4 Wegner, 1938, Abb. 2, 4; Wegner, 1939; Wessel, 1946/47, 62‑76, Abb. I-VI.

1During the archaeological excavations of the necropolis in Roman Viminacium in 2006, at the site Pirivoj, in a freely dug in grave, on the chest of a deceased woman, on the left side, was found a cameo in a gold medallion (Nº 25), hanged on a necklace consisting of 170 beads made of black paste. On the chest of the deceased woman there was also a bronze coin of Iulia Domna (211‑217), and on the fingers of the left hand there were two rings, one made of black glass-paste, and the other made of gold, with an inserted stone of red color.1 On the cameo of oval shape, made of two-layer opal, with the light-blue background, in the white layer is represented in relief a bust of a female person in the profile to the left. The lower parts of the face and the chin are missing. The eye is big, almond-shaped and wide open. Special attention is payed to depicting the hairstyle. The hair, represented by thin incisions, is following the line of the forehead, falling behind the ears down to the end of the neck, where it is braided in a plait, which is at the back of the head bent twice. The plait is marked by the incised X ornaments. The woman is dressed into a transparent tunica, under which the breasts are discernible. The dress, whose oval edge under the neck is marked in relief, is fastened on the right shoulder with an oval buckle, so the upper part of the arm is not covered. Over the left shoulder is thrown a cloak, richly gathered into folds, which, going under the breasts, covers the right arm above the elbow and goes up to the neck. The folds on the cloak are modeled in relief. The cameo is inserted into a cassette made of gold tin, whose horizontal frame is decorated in relief with the motif of stylized palmettes. On the top is applied a wide, gouged, suspension loop. The medallions with analogously decorated frames are well represented not only in Viminacium, but also at the other sites on Danube.2 The find of this cameo in the gold medallion inspired us to return again to the theme of cameos with the representation of the female bust, very numerous finds on the Middle and Lower Danube and relatively rare in the other parts of the Empire. Although about these finds it has already been written in the scientific literature,3 our opinion is that they should be researched in more detail, that the possible workshops in which the cameos were produced should be determined, and that their function should be observed looking at them in the context of the historical circumstances at the time when they were made. Because, besides the newly found specimen these finds are already published, we will not describe them in detail, but we will try, on the basis of the way of combing the hair of represented women, to determine the time of production of these cameos and to represent them in their chronological sequence. Although, in contrast to the summarily treated faces, the female hairstyle on the cameos is represented in detail, authentically reflecting the fashion dictated by the empresses, there are some imprecisions in defining certain specimens, because the empresses in the course of time were changing the way of combing their hair, and sometimes more of them had the same or very similar hairstyle.4

• 5 For the photos of cameos I am deeply grateful to Ante Rendić-Miočević, the director of Archaeologic (...)
• 6 Eichler, Kris, 1927, p. 81.
• 7 Bernhard-Walcher et al., 1994, cat. 165.
• 8 The petrographical analysis of cameos from the National Museum in Belgrade was done by Prof. dr Dan (...)
• 9 Ruseva-Slokoska, 1991, cat. 130.
• 10 Popović, 2009, p. 57‑60, fig. 6.

53As it can be seen from the list of cameos, from 40 specimens,5 and there are, probably, even more, because the certain number of similar pieces in different museum collections is registered as objects of unknown provenance, most of them originate from the bigger urban centres, formed next to the military camps on Danube. Only the specimens Nº 8, 9, 35, 39‑40 were found somewhat more to the south: three of them in Thrace, in the thermal object Aquae Calidae, in the District of Jambol and in in the important city-centre Augusta Traiana, while two gold medallions with cameos were found in a tomb near Remesiana in Dacia Ripensis. Two cameos were found in the vicinity of the big city-centres in the south part of the valley of river Sava, in Jarak near Sirmium (Nº 14) and in Cibalae (Nº 36). Most of them, probably even 10 and maybe more cameos, were discovered in Viminacium, three were found in Novae, three, two of them inserted into the sockets of a pair of gold earrings, in Durostorum, one in Pleven, one in Ratiaria, one in Almus, one in Romula, two in Brigetio, and one in Intercisa, in the vicinity of Tolna, Szigetvár, Sirmium and Cibalae, while for the other specimens the place of find is not determined with certainity (fig. 1). On the cameos in question is depicted a female bust in profile to the left or to the right, with the summarily treated face and the hairstyle represented considerably in detail. An iconographic exception is the cameo in the gold medallion of ellipsoidal shape, on which are depicted a male and a female bust in profile (Nº 18). In the earlier literature it is treated as an object from the unknown site,6 while later it is stated that it, most probably, originates from Viminacium.7 All cameos are made of semi-precious stones, the variations of two-layer or multi-layer opal, agate and onyx,8 and their size varies between 11 × 7 mm and 32 × 20 mm. Most of these cameos (23) were kept as an amulet or preciousness, and not as a part of jewelry, while 10 of them were inserted into the cassettes made of gold tin (Nº 1, 5, 12, 15, 18, 19, 22, 23, 25, 28), to be weared as medallions on the necklaces. Three specimens were inserted into the sockets of the rings (Nº 7, 8, 29), and two into the gold earrings (Nº 21). On the lateral edge of the back side of the gold medallion from Durostorum (Nº 20) two hooks are preserved.9 This could point that it belonged to a belt, or some other part of clothes, while the lateral edges of the back side of two gold medallions with cameos from Remesiana (Nº 39, 40), one of them hanged on a short chain, are perforated, so they were used as applications on a dress, creating an original decorative set, whose reconstruction, with a qualified acceptance, we tried to explain and to represent graphically.10

• 11 Walters, 1926, p. 211, Pl. XXV, 2016; Gramatopol, 1974, p. 88, Pl. XXXI, 660; Megow, 1987, p. 311, (...)
• 12 Megow, 1986, Nº 7.
• 13 Dimitrova, 1969, p. 44, fig. 2.

56The cameos Nº 1 and 2, on which the woman has a hairstyle like Faustina Minor, are of small dimensions, with a schematic and linear representation of the female face. In the entirely same style was made also the cameo Nº 3, for which in the documentation there is no precise evidence, but with great probability we assume that it was also produced in Viminacium, especially because such style of representing the face and hair does not appear on the other specimens. The cameos on which the hairstyle that were wearing Faustina Minor and Crispina, graphically modeled, are very numerous in the whole Danube region and also in many museum collections,11 but without any data about the place where they were found, so it is very hard to identify them according to the production centres. One cameo of this type was inserted into the socket on the gold ring from somewhat later period, possibly from the second half of the 3rd century, discovered in Bonn.12 For the quality of their production stand out the cameo on the gold ring from Viminacium (Nº 7), the cameo in the gold medallion from the unknown site (Nº 5), the cameo from Almus (Nº 11) and that one in the gold medallion from the unknown site in the Serbian part of Danube Valley. The cameos Nº 5, 6 and 10 show some stylistic kinship in treating the female face and hairstyle, so it can be assumed that they were produced in some centre on Danube, probably in Viminacium. By the characteristics of the depicted face and hairstyle a close analogy with the cameo from Almus (Nº 11) and also with those from Viminacium and the vicinity of Sirmium (Nº 13, 14) represents the cameo from the gold bracelet, discovered in the necropolis Bagineti in Georgia.13 But, it is hard to talk about the place of their production, although for the specimens Nº 5, 6, 7, 13, 14 we assume that they were made in Viminacium. We have noticed that women depicted on the cameos Nº 6, 11 and 13 have the same profile, i.e. that the forehead and the nose are depicted flatly, in the same line, which does not necessarily means that these cameos are the work of one artisan, although it is not impossible that the glyptic products from Viminacium have reached Almus in the east and Sirmium and Brigetio in the west and north-west. But, we can state that by the stylistic treatment of the female persons from the specimens mentioned above are different the cameos from Aquae Calidae (Nº 8) and Ljulin (Nº 9), made, possibly, in some glyptic centre in Thrace.

• 14 Popović, 1993, p. 52, Nº 8, Pl. IV, 8.
• 15 Krug, 1980, Nº 72.
• 16 Krug, 1980, Nº 392.

57Most of the registered cameos (16) originate from the period of rule of the Severan dynasty and were made in the first half of the 3^rd century. On the cameo in the gold medallion from the unknown site in Hungary, probably from south Pannonia (Nº 15) the woman has a hairstyle in the shape of a helmet (Helmfrisur), characteristic for the wife of Septimius Severus, Iulia Domna. The analogous specimens at the other sites on Danube are not registered, although from Viminacium originates one monetary pendant with the inserted denarius of Iulia Domna, on which the empress is wearing the same hairstyle.14 But, this is not a strong proof that in the glyptic workshop of this town were produced the cameos with the female busts which have the hairstyle of Iulia Domna. On the other hand, the woman represented on the cameo from south Pannonia is wearing the tunica gathered into folds and thrown over the shoulder, which leaves the upper part of the arm uncovered. This form of clothes is analogous to that one which is wearing the woman on the cameo in the gold medallion from the unknown site in the Serbian part of Danube Valley (Nº 28), for which we assume that it was made in Viminacium. This can, but not necessarily, point to the place of production also of the Pannonian specimen. From Viminacium comes also one cameo on which the woman is wearing the hairstyle with the knot in the shape of a roll (Nº 16), like the empress Iulia Mammaea. That specimen represents a more rustical and bad copy of the cameo from the unknown site in the Serbian part of Danube Valley (Nº 17), so we assume that this specimen, well modeled, was also made in Viminacium. The woman depicted on that cameo is wearing a transparent tunica, under which the breasts are discernible, and a cloak gathered into folds, going under the chest over to the muscle of the arm, around which it is wrapped. In the same way is dressed also the woman represented on the cameo from the recently discovered gold medallion from Viminacium (Nº 25). This points to the conclusion that both objects are the products of the same workshop, maybe even of the same artisan, although the cameo from the unknown site was, according to the hairstyle, made few years earlier. The breasts, stressed by round incisions, are clearly discernible also on the woman represented on the cameo in the gold medallion from Ratiaria (Nº 23), wearing the same hairstyle as those on the specimens 16 and 17, although, according to the treatment of clothes and hairstyle, it is a work of worse quality than the specimen Nº 17. It is interesting to mention that into the transparent tunica and cloak gathered into folds is also dressed the woman represented on the cameo from Horrreum Margi (Nº 38), which could show that it was also made in the geographically close Viminacium, although somewhat later, at the very end of the 3rd or in the first years of the 4^th century. This would mean that in the Viminacium workshop for more decades the style of treating the woman’s clothes remained the same. It led to the unproportionality in representing the naked shoulder and upper part of the arm, which are more narrow than it would be expected. The women represented on the cameos Nº 16 and 17, besides that they have at the back of the head a knot in the shape of a roll, have also the hair combed from the forehead, braided into more plaits, which gives to the hairstyle the look of the melon slices (Melonenstähenenfrisur). In the same way is also combed the woman whose bust, together with the male one, appears on the cameo in the gold medallion, probably from Viminacium (Nº 18). But, by the style of execution and the iconographic solution, this cameo differs from the previous specimens. By certain details in the stylistic treatment it is close to the representation of the woman on the cameo from the grave in Intercisa (Nº 19), whose hair, combed smoothly from the forehead, is gathered above the neck into a knot in the shape of a roll. The firm features of the face, the marked profile and the strong chin separate the representation on this cameo from the female faces depicted on the cameos from Moesia. Because of that we think that it was made in some Pannonian centre, whose activity defined itself in the first years of the 3rd century, because the cameos from the late Antoninian Period in this region (Nº 5, 10, 14) do not show the stylistic aberrations from the treatment of cameos from the region of Upper and Lower Moesia. The iconographic solution analogous to that one used on the cameo from Viminacium (?), which implies the representation of a male and a female bust in profile, turned one towards the other, was also used on a cameo found in a grave in Cologne.15 But, the hairstyle that the depicted woman is wearing, is characteristic of the slightly later period, because from the knot goes the plait, fixed low on the top of the head. The hairstyle with the knot in the shape of a roll at the back of the head, that is formed by combing the hair behind the ears, are wearing the women represented on the cameos from Durostorum (Nº 20, 21), Pleven (Nº 22) and Ratiaria (Nº 23), while the similar way of treating the hair, but with the plait that goes from the knot and is fixed low at the back of the head, appears on the specimens from Brigetio and Szigetvár (Nº 26, 27). This is a way of treating the hair close to that one used on the recently discovered cameo from Viminacium (Nº 25), although there are certain differences in the treatment of the knot and plaits. The similar hairstyle, but with the stressed plaits that go down to the knot on the neck, is wearing also the woman represented on the cameo from the unknown site, today in the Römisch-Germanisches Museum Köln,16 whose characteristic is the hard style of execution. Because of this we think that it was made in some centre to the west of the workshops on Danube. On the other hand, the woman represented on the cameo from Brigetio is dressed into the cloak gathered into folds, which does not cover the right shoulder and the arm. This is not registered on other specimens, and it could also point to the activity of some Pannonian centre. The cameo on which the represented woman has a similar type of hairstyle, from Novae (Nº 24), is very rustically made, and that one from Romula (Nº 30) is executed in a hard and linear style, like somewhat later products from Novae (Nº 33, 34). Because of this we assume that from the workshop in Novae comes also the specimen discovered on the left bank of Danube, in Romula. On the other hand, the draped clothes which covers the bust up to the very neck on the cameo from Romula is represented in the same way as on the cameo from Durostorum, which can also point to the import from this workshop on the right bank to some city-centre on the left bank of Danube. The cameo in the gold medallion from the unknown site in the Serbian part of Danube Valley (Nº 28) is a very good product, maybe from Viminacium, while the representation of the woman with the hairstyle that was most often wearing the empress Iulia Paula, on the cameo from the gold ring (Nº 29), differs in style from all the up to now gathered specimens, so the provenance of this ring with cameo, coming from a private collection, is uncertain.

• 17 Gnecchi, 1912, p. 22, Tav. 8. 10‑12.
• 18 Krug, 1980, Nº 61.
• 19 Jovanović, 1978; Popović, 2001, p. 93‑116; 236‑245; Popović, 2006/07, p. 191‑200.

59The gold medallions with cameos from Remesiana (Nº 39, 40) are the parts of some decoration on the clothes. The cameos are made in the style of the art of late Antoninian Period, and the represented women have the same hairstyle as Faustina Minor. In the period around 320 and somewhat before that, as it show the bronze medallions minted in 316‑317 in Sirmium,17 the same did also the Constantine’s wife Fausta, on the basis of which we dated these parts of jewelry into the end of the 2nd – beginning of the 3rd decade of the 4^th century. The hair combed as that one which has Faustina Minor wear also three preserved of 10 female busts (personifications ?, Muses ?) on the rim of the cameo from Cologne, dated into the first half of the 4^th century.18 The place of production of medallions with cameos from Remesiana stays unknown to us, although in the nearby Naissus is registered an intensive work of goldsmithing-toreutic workshops,19 but in that region are not registered any finds of cameos with the female busts from the earlier period.

• 20 Vomer-Gojkovič ,1992, p. 59, 102, nr. 63; Vomer-Gojkovič, Žižek, 2008, p. 73, e.

60The stylistic analysis of cameos with the representation of the female bust in profile, observed together with the place where they were found, shows that they were produced in the workshops located in the civilian settlements next to the military camps on Danube Limes. We can follow the activity of the workshop in Viminacium in the period from 160- 180 until the first years of the 4th century. The works of the workshop in Novae are confirmed with certainty from the 2nd-3rd decade until the end of the 3^rd century, while that one in Durostorum is best confirmed by the products from the period around 220‑230, when, maybe, was also active the workshop in Ratiaria. The activity of some Pannonian workshops is still uncertain, although stylistic kinship in treating the female face with full cheeks and stressed eyes on cameos from Viminacium (Nº 25), Brigetio (Nº 26), Szigetvár (Nº 27), Cibalae (Nº 36) and from the site Hőgyész near Tolna in Pannonia (Nº 37), can point that these products are the work of different artisans from the Viminacium workshop, and not of the particular centre in south Pannonia. On the other hand, the finds of cameos from Bonn, Cologne, castellum Niederbieber and the other sites in the vicinity of the Rhine Limes point that in the local workshops in the settlements next to the military camps were produced, in the smaller measure indeed, the cameos iconographically analogous to those from the workshops on Danube, although linear and of lower quality of production. On the other hand, the cameo with the representation of the female bust from Poetovio20 in Upper Pannonia is stylistically differrent from the already mentioned cameos from the Danube Valley, and the woman represented three quarters en face does not have the hairstyle characteristic for some of the Antoninian-Severan empresses, so we can not observe it in the context of cameos with the propagandistic message.

• 21 Megow, 1986, p. 475, nr. 9; Gesztelyi, 2001, p. 23‑24.
• 22 Dimitrova, 1969, p. 46‑47.
• 23 Hannestadt, 1988, p. 259‑260, fig. 158.
• 24 Megow, 1986, p. 475, nr. 9.

61As we have already mentioned, the list of cameos with the representation of the female bust shows the great concentration of these finds in the civilian settlements next to the military camps on Danube, which, mostly, originate from the late Antoninian and Severan Period. These conclusions bring us to the problem which was already treated in the scientific literature, to which type of portraits belong these representations, i.e. do these portraits represent the empresses or the private persons. In the modern literature prevails the opinion that the represented women are the private persons, because they do not wear any imperial attributes or insignia.21 An exception is the cameo from Novae (Nº 33), on which the represented woman is wearing over the tunica a cloak, whose wide edges are ornamented with the incised crossed lines. This could represent the garment of the empresses, decorated with the gold embroidery on the wide edges of the dress,22 which can be noticed also on the representation of the cloak of the wife of Septimius Severus, Iulia Domna, on the wooden tondo from Egypt.23 But, the problem of the identification of the represented female figures on the mentioned cameos, in our opinion, is in close connection with the historical circumstances in certain periods and with the imperial political-propagandistic programs. We have already noticed that the mass- production of cameos of this type begins at the time of rule of late Antonini and Severi. The answer to the question why this happened at this time could be found in the fact that at first Marcus Aurelius and after him Septimius Severus have transgressed the earlier established rule that the emperors through the principle of adoption do not appoint their successor from the group of their descendants. These two emperors by proclaiming their sons their successors tried to establish their dynasties based on consanguinity. Because of that the wives, the mothers of the future emperors, had a special role. The representations on the cameos are probably the models of these empresses, whose characteristic feature was the specific hairstyle. As the features of the face of the represented women mainly lack any individual characteristics, we believe that they were made on the basis of the models-cardboards with the representations of the empresses, which were in circulation in the workshops along the Danube-Rhine Limes. Evidence of this is a rather unskillfully produced cameo from the castellum Niederbieber,24 on which is represented a woman in the clothes represented in the similar way as on the specimens of higher quality from Viminacium (Nº 17, 25) and Ratiaria (Nº 23), produced few decades earlier. Of course, this does not mean that the distinguished women from the urban centres on Danube did not comb their hair according to the fashion dictated by the empresses, but we do not believe that the figures on the cameos represent individual portraits, but a sort of the prototype of the figure of the empress.

• 25 Mirković, 1971, p. 33.
• 26 Mirković, 1986, p. 48.
• 27 Tudor, 1958, p. 456.
• 28 Popović, 1993, p. 52, Nº 8, Pl. IV, 8.

62The next question, in close connection with the previous one, is why the cameos with the representation of the female bust were mass-produced during the mentioned period in the workshops in the civilian settlements next to the military camps on Danube. We have to keep in mind that Marcus Aurelius, during whose time started the production of these cameos, used to stay very often in Sirmium, while he was personally waging the hard wars on the Danube border with Quadi, Marcomanni and Sarmatians.25 The provinces on Danube became very important for the defence of the Empire, and because of their strategic position they came into the focus of the imperial propaganda politics. After the death of Commodus and a short civil war, the military troops from the Danube regions proclaimed Septimius Severus the emperor. He had, as also did his son and heir Caracalla, visited the cities on Danube, appropriating large sums of money for their reconstruction, and, as it show the written sources and epigraphic monuments, the rich citizens from these centres were giving to the public treasury the great amounts of money on the occasion of their elections for the civil, military or sacerdotal functions.26 For the cities in Lower Dacia, on the left bank of Danube, this was also the period of peace and prosperity.27 In any case, the cities on Danube during the rule of the emperors from the dynasty of Severi have experienced strong economic rising, and the part of population became rich. These phenomena were, surely, followed by the strong propaganda of the emperors who enabled prosperity to these centres. Because of this it is not surprising that precisely here took place the mass-production of cameos with the representation of the female bust, the prototype of empress, mother of the future emperor, or the prototype of his wife. Within the framework of such dynastic politics, the figures on the cameo in the gold medallion, possibly from Viminacium (Nº 18), can be explained as the symbolical representations of Alexander Severus and his wife Iulia Mammaea. Anyway, as we have already mentioned, in Viminacium was discovered also a monetary pendant, made of denarius of Iulia Domna, under Severus, minted between 196 and 211 in Rome, and inserted into a gold frame.28 On the averse of the coin was represented the bust of the empress, and on the reverse the busts of Septimius Severus and Caracalla, which is, also, a gesture of dynastic propaganda.

• 29 Brenot, Metzger, 1992, p. 348‑352.
• 30 The pendant with the denarius of Caracalla, minted in Rome in 199‑200, and inserted into the gold f (...)
• 31 Aubin et al., 1999, p. 149‑152.
• 32 To the conclusion about the same role of cameos with the female busts and of the monetary pendants (...)

63The third question, related to the production of cameos with the female bust, is connected to the appearance of monetary jewelry and its depositing. Namely, it has been stated that the jewelry with the inserted coins in the west provinces of the Empire, and in the first place in Gaul, appears in masses in the hoards whose deposition can be dated into the period since the beginning of the rule of Septimius Severus, and that on these decorations in almost the same quantity were used the coins of the emperors from the dynasties of Antonini and Severi.29 The monetary pendants are in the Danube region very rare,30 and the mentioned specimen from Viminacium is, as far as we know, the only one with the direct dynastic message, which is on the coins minted in 201‑202 a very frequent theme.31 The question is asked why on the Middle and Lower Danube these pendants almost do not exist, while in Gaul there is a great number of them, and, on the other hand, in the Danube region is flourishing the production of cameos with the representation of the female bust, which in the West almost do not exist. Are these two sorts of precious objects equivalent in their propagandistic meaning,32 and if they are, why are the finds from one group, the monetary pendants, concentrated in the west provinces, while the finds from the other group, the cameos with the representation of the female bust, are most numerous in Danube Valley? The answer to this question is elusing and maybe it can partly be found in the fact that the monetary pendants with the coins of the emperors from the dynasty of Antonini and Severi have been found in Gaul mainly in the hoards created at the time of hiding the valuable things in front of the barbarian incursions, while the cameos from the Danube Valley are mainly from the graves from the period when in this region no greater aggressions from the outside were felt, but, on the contrary, this was a period of peace and prosperity.

• 33 Seston, 1946, p. 45, 54, 132‑133.
• 34 Stein, 1968, p. 79.

64The number and quality of cameos of this type is declining rapidly at the end and after the rule of the emperors from the dynasty of Severi, to which bear witness the specimens made in the linear style from Novae (Nº 33) and Viminacium (Nº 31), while the representation on the cameo from the unknown site in the Serbian part of Danube Valley (Nº 32) is extremely schematic. Graphically modeled and somewhat more skillfully executed are the cameos found in Novae (Nº 34), Augusta Traiana (Nº 35) and from a grave at the site H gyész near Tolna (Nº 37). Although the lower parts of the face on the cameo from Augusta Traiana (Nº 35) are very damaged, its stylistic closeness to the cameo from Novae (Nº 34) is being noticed, which is best seen in the treatment of the plait in the form of a bow, fixed on the top of the head. It is possible that the find from the centre Augusta Traiana in Thrace came from the workshop in Novae. But, for the quality of its production stands apart the cameo from Horreum Margi (Nº 38), the city-centre on the river Morava, for which we assume that it was made in the neighboring Viminacium. The woman represented on it is wearing the hairstyle characteristic for Galeria Valeria, Diocletian’s daughter and wife of his caesar Galerius. Diocletian finally established his rule in 286, after the victory over Carinus in the battle which took place on the river Morava. In 293 he married his daughter Valeria to the caesar Galerius, with whom from 293 to 297 he fought hard battles on Danube against Carpi and Bastarnae, taking measures to reconstruct the military camps on Danube.33 Establishing the Tetrarchy as a new ideological-propagandistic program in the Empire, augusti and caesars became the representatives on Earth of Jupiter and Hercules, i.e. the members of the divine family Iovii-Herculii. The successors of augusti were becoming caesars nominated by them, and not their own sons. The role of a wife in this system is becoming important again, because she is becoming an adoptive mother of the future augustus. Diocletian even married his daughter to his adoptive son Galerius, so it is not surprising that the prototype of the figure of this empress appears on the cameo made, probably, in Viminacium, and found in Horreum Margi, in the region where Diocletian won the war and finally came to power and where, together with caesar Galerius he succeeded in defending the Danube border of the Empire from the barbarian attacks. Because the woman represented on the cameo from the site Hőgyész near Tolna (Nº 37) in the province, Valeria has the same type of hairstyle as that one from Horreum Margi, we think that this is also the prototype of the empress Galeria Valeria, although because of the damaged nose and lower parts of the face it is hard to define the stylistic characteristics of the representation. But, as it was found in the province named after this empress, where Galerius used to stay very often, fighting the wars against Sarmatians and Marcomanni and taking economic measures like draining the land around the lake Balaton,34 this identification seems to us very possible.

• 35 Sena Chiesa, 2005, p. 195‑197, fig. 10.
• 36 Hannestad 1988, p. 325.

65After raising of Constantine to power, the production of cameos experienced its new flourishing. The big, luxuriously executed specimens were made, modeled in the style of the classical Roman art, which were in function of propagating and legalizing his rule, and also of demonstrating the new system, the dynastic principle according to which the sons succeeded to the emperor and to which bears witness in the best way the representation of Constantine, his wife Fausta and their sons on the so-called Ada cameo.35 Victory over Licinius in the battle at Cibalae in 316 enabled Constantine to come to power in the Balkan provinces of the Empire, and the cities Serdica and Naissus, between which lies Remesiana in which were discovered two cameos in gold medalllions (Nº 39, 40), are becoming the places which he is visiting frequently, strategically important for his final countdown with Licinius, that happened in 324, when he won the battle at Chrysopolis in Thrace. So, it is not surprising that in this region the activity in the field of his dynastic propaganda is very intensive, which can explain the production of cameos with the prototype of the figure of his wife Fausta, combed like Faustina Minor, the wife of Marcus Aurelius, who was in his opinion one of «good emperors» and as whose legitimate successor he wanted to represent himself.36