Cesarik, Nikola – Maja Grisonic – David Štrmelj – Inga Vilogorac-Brčić : Calpurnia and the Egyptian Deities in Caska on the Island of Pag

Nikola Cesarik – Maja Grisonic – David Štrmelj – Inga Vilogorac-Brčić,
Calpurnia and the Egyptian Deities in Caska on the Island of Pag

Zagreb 2025

ISBN 978-953-379-221-7


96 S./pp., zahlr. Farbabb./num. colour figs., 23,5 x 16,5 cm; kartoniert/hardcover

The Caska Bay near Novalja represents a unique archaeological complex, not only on the island of Pag but also in the wider eastern Adriatic region, due to its historical significance and beautiful landscape. Its historical secrets, mostly from the ancient period, are gradually being revealed through the persistent work of several generations of archaeologists and historians. With the exception of urban areas, or Roman colonies and municipalities, nowhere in the rural area along the entire eastern Adriatic coast has such a large amount of epigraphic material mentioning people from the highest circles of Roman society been found. Caska is also the site that hides the oldest evidence of the cult of Isis on the entire eastern Adriatic coast. Inscriptions dedicated to the Egyptian goddess from the Hellenistic-Roman period were carved on four altars at the beginning of the 1st century AD by Calpurnia, a member of the aristocratic family Calpurnii Pisones from Rome. Her father owned a maritime villa, or rather a coastal country estate in Caska, which, in addition to a luxurious (but still undiscovered) residential area, also had its own production facilities for various types of food. Calpurnia inherited the estate in Caska from her father and worshipped the goddess Isis and other gods of her circle there. She did all this at a time when, by all accounts, the ban on Egyptian cults, initiated by the Roman emperor Tiberius in 19 AD, was still in effect. This is the story of her, her family, and how and why Calpurnia Piso came to Caska in the first place, but also the story of the gods that, despite the bans, Calpurnia worshipped on her estate.