Missorium of Theodosius I - A Commemorative Dish

A Commemorative Dish

The dish is one of the most beautiful examples of silversmith's work of imperial largesse, that is to say of the category of luxury articles made for imperial celebrations such as accession to the throne and anniversaries and given on these occasions by the emperor to high-ranking dignitaries of the empire: they were mainly dishes, plates, cups, and bowls in silver. The recipient may well be the official represented on the dish (possibly a generalized figure, especially if the design was made in several copies, which we cannot judge), and the find-spot in Spain, Theodosius's home province, suggests it was one of his Spanish friends or relations.

A missorium is a large dish or shallow bowl that could be used in ceremonial washing of hands and face in both secular and pagan and Christian religious contexts, though this dish is too flat to be very useful for this, and was probably intended mainly to be displayed as a sign of wealth and imperial favour. The term now tends to be avoided by scholars, as rather imprecise, but has become traditional in the case of the dish in Madrid. This is made of solid silver and has traces of gilding on the inscriptions. Its size is exceptional compared to other contemporary silver dishes, measuring 74 cm in diameter with a thickness which varies between 4 and 8 mm. It rests on a ring, 3 cm thick with a diameter of 26 cm, which was welded to the base. This ring has a Greek inscription specifying the official weight of the object:

ποc ↑Ν ΜεΤ i.e. ποσότης λιτρῶν 50 μετάλλου (“50 metal books”)

The 50 "books" correspond to an official weight of 16.13 kg of silver, whereas the dish actually weighs only 15.35 kg; the difference could be because the dish was weighed and marked before being decorated: a piece of the dish is also missing. The decoration, at the same time engraved and with repoussé decoration (pushed out from the back), would have removed a little metal, although this is unlikely to account for the whole difference.

The subject of the decoration is the emperor enthroned with his co-reigning emperors. An inscription along the side of the rim makes it possible to identify him with certainty:

D (ominus) N (oster) THEODOSIVS PERPET (uus) AVG (ustus) OB DIEM FELICISSIMVM X

that is to say: “Our Lord Theodosius, emperor forever, on the most happy occasion of the tenth anniversary (of his reign).”

The inscription indicates that the dish was made at the time of the decennalia of an emperor named Theodosius. The presence of two co-regents makes it possible to exclude immediately Theodosius II, for he had one co-regent — his uncle Flavius Honorius — at the time of the tenth anniversary of his reign, celebrated in 412. This leaves the decennalia of Theodosius I, on January 19 388. It was celebrated when the emperor was staying at Thessaloniki from September 387 to April 388. Some have concluded that the missorium was the work of a Thessalonician workshop, but it is more likely that it was ordered from the Imperial workshops in Constantinople; others think that the imperial workshop would have followed the emperor around on his travels.

Few examples of this imperial silver have survived; only nineteen items, all dating from the 4th century and produced for six different emperors, though ten are for Licinius. In this series, the missorium of Theodosius I is distinguished because it is both the latest - although the practice probably continued for a further two centuries - and because it carries the most elaborate decoration: the only other well-preserved examples are the Kerch plate, preserved at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersberg, showing Constantius II on horseback, and that of Valentinian I or Valentinian II in Geneva. A fragment from a treasure found at Groß Bodungen was probably the closest to the missorium of Theodosius I in design, but is too damaged to allow an identification or a precise dating. Rather more examples have survived of aristocratic, rather than imperial silver, such as the Mildenhall Treasure probably dating from a few years earlier, or the Sevso Treasure.