Runesocesius was a

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...

whose name appears on an inscription from the region of

Évora Évora ( , ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. It has 53,591 inhabitants (2021), in an area of 1307.08 km2. It is the historic capital of the Alentejo and serves as the seat of the Évora District. Due to its well-preserved old to ...

, the Roman ''Ebora'' in modern

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

in the area inhabited by the

Celtici ] The Celtici (in Portuguese language, Portuguese, Spanish, and Galician languages, ) were a Celtic tribe or group of tribes of the Iberian peninsula, inhabiting three definite areas: in what today are the regions of Alentejo and the Algarve i ...

Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and a portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lusita ...

. He has generally been thought of as a Lusitanian god.

Discovery & interpretation

At the close of the 19th Century, a Roman dedication was discovered and examined by Portuguese

archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

near Évora. The inscription was in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and read ''SANCTRVNESOCESIOSACRVGLIC ... QVINTCINV ... BALS''. In a paper submitted to the French ''Société des Antiquaires'' this was interpreted as ''Sancto Runeso Cesio Sacrum G. Licinius Quinctinus Balsensis'': a dedication by Gaius Licinius Quinctinus of Balsa to a previously unknown god, Runesus Cesius. The name was interpreted as

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

, with "Cesius" an allograph for ''gaesius'' and hence deriving from the roots ''*runa-'' and ''*gaiso-'' meaning "the Mysterious One of the Javelin (or Spear)" An alternative reading, as a single word ''Runesocesius'', was proposed by J M Blazquez-Martinez in the light of the element -eso- being a recurring one in Lusitanian names.

Significance

Blazquez-Martinez also observed that whereas there were large numbers of deities recorded in the Northern Lusitanian and Gallaecian regions, only the names of Endovelicus,

Ataegina Ataegina ( es, Ataecina; pt, Atégina) was a goddess worshipped by the ancient Iberians, Lusitanians, and Celtiberians of the Iberian Peninsula. She is believed to have ruled the underworld. Names The deity's name is variously attested as ''At ...

and Runesocesius appeared in the South, beyond the

Tagus The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see #Name, below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections ...

river, which some have supposed must have meant particular importance was attached to these three. The character of the Celtici and other peoples in this region and their affiliation as Lusitanian, Celtic or Tartessian/Turdetanian remain a complex issue.''The Celts of the Southwestern Iberian Peninsula'' Luis Berrocal-Rangel in E-Keltoi Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies vol. 6
/ref> The name itself and its meaning remain subject to interpretation. C. Licinius Quinctinus' home in Balsa lay further South in what was, while part of the Roman province of Lusitania, outside the area of Lusitanian epigraphy and Lusitanian-Gallaecian

theonym A theonym (from Greek ''theos'' (Θεός), "god"'','' attached to ''onoma'' (ὄνομα), "name") is the proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics (the study of the etymology, history, and u ...

s, in the Tartessian or Turdetanian speaking part of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

. Runesocesius could therefore be seen as significant to the Lusitanians, Celtiberians or

Turdetani The Turdetani were an ancient pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula, living in the valley of the Guadalquivir (the river that the Turdetani called by two names: ''Kertis'' and ''Rérkēs'' (Ῥέρκης); Romans would call the river by th ...

, or to all three.

References

{{reflist Lusitanian gods