Inscribed Statue Base

The Latin text describes the career of Candidus, an officer from Cirta (modern Algeria) who fought in the civil wars following the assasination of the emperor Commodus in AD 192. Admitted to the Roman Senate, Candidus was given the governorship of Nearer Spain, which he used as a base for operations against Clodius Albinus.
Candidus led armies from Mesopotamia to southern France and his personal valour at the siege of Nicaea in Turkey earned him a mention in the Histories of Cassius Dio.
Candidus was probably killed by order of Fulvius Plautianus, praetorian prefect of Septimius Severus. His name was erased from the first line of the text but later restored, presumably after Plautianus' death in AD 205.
About AD 195-199
From Tarragona, Spain. Presented in 1708 by the municipality of Tarragona to the first Earl of Stanhope.

British Museum, London.
April 2013.