Medaurus

Medaurus was the protective deity of the town of Rhizon (Latin Risinium, modern Risan) on the Bay of Kotor in present-day Montenegro. He is portrayed as a warrior on horseback brandishing a spear, an image rooted in the strong equestrian and martial traditions of the southern Illyrians. His fame travelled with the soldiers of his homeland: at Lambaesis in Numidia, the headquarters of the Legio III Augusta, a legate who was himself a native of Risinium set up a metrical Latin dedication (CIL VIII 2581) describing an equestrian statue of the god, his left hand spurring the horse upward while his right hand hurls the spear, almost certainly a replica of a monumental statue that stood in Risinium itself. Carried by frontier troops, Medaurus functioned as a warder-off of enemies, a role that scholars have compared to that of Jupiter Depulsor.

Domains

• war and martial protection
• civic tutelary deity

Powers

• to ward off the enemies of his city

Sources

• John Wilkes, The Illyrians (The Peoples of Europe), Oxford: Blackwell, 1992, pp. 244-247
• P. Dyczek, J. Kolendo, T. Płóciennik & K. Rzepkowski, 'Une inscription métrique de Lambaesis (CIL VIII 2581; F. Buecheler, Carmina Latina epigraphica 1527) et la statue du dieu illyrien Médaure', Antiquités africaines 50 (2014), pp. 73-84