Ancient Cults as Patrons of Seafaring and Seafarers in Istria

I this paper, the author underlines that epigraphic material and monuments mentioning ancient cults as patrons of seafaring and seafarers in Istria – which would correspond to numerous coastal settlements and ports, villas and landing places – are scarce. It is assumed that the supreme Roman sea deity Neptune was worshipped in the temple on the capitolium in Poreč, and in the residential maritime villa complex on the Brijuni Islands (the triad: Mars, Neptune, Venus). Indirect evidence of the worship of a coastal town’s patrons are depictions in relief of a group of oriental, Greek and Roman deities in the Pula forum (Jupiter Ammon, Achelous, Triton, the Nereids, Medusa). They belong to the familiar repertoire of cult decoration of maritime towns on the Adriatic coast (Salona, Zadar, Trieste, Aquileia). Interestingly, relief depictions of Achelous and the Nereids can also be found in the small and large Roman theatres in Pula. A sculpture representing one of the Dioscuri, the mortal Castor with a horse, has also been found in Pula. Regardless of the absence of small votive bronze figurines from home shrines, two bronze figurines of Isis Fortuna with a rudder, discovered in Savudrija and Loron, testify to the veneration of this cult in Roman villas on the western coast of Istria. Depiction of the sea god Glaucus on a gem found in the necropolis of Burla near Medulin fits into the repertoire of cult protection of fishermen and seafaring. The paper also contains a catalogue of cult monuments.