Carnuntum and Epigraphy

Nemesis

Nemesis was the Roman goddess of vengeance and those who thought too highly of themselves before all the other gods. She was known for rewarding virtue, but also for punishing wrong doings. She directed the humans in such a way as to bring equilibrium to the human race – the balancing of good and evil. She could also be called by the name of "Invidia", meaning jealousy, or by the name "Rivalitas" meaning Jealous Rivalry.

Nemesis click to enlarge

Just off of the Legionary amphitheater in Carnuntum was a shrine dedicated to Nemesis. Men who fought in the amphitheater made dedications to Nemesis.¹ Morturary inscriptions dedicated to Nemesis can also be found at Carnuntum. Of the inscriptions in this study, all but one dedicated to Nemesis were made by the 14th Legion. In Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, Harry Thurston Peck suggests that Nemesis was a "post-Homeric personification of the moral indignation felt at all derangements of the natural equilibrium of things, whether by extraordinarily good fortune or by the arrogance usually attendant thereon."² This idea suggests why Nemesis was of such great importance to the men at Carnuntum. Being on the Danube Frontier, Carnuntum was between two territories, that which was controlled by Rome and that which was not. Dedications to Nemesis provided balance in the wake of someone's death.