In the memory of ancient authors the invasion of the Marcomanni and of
the Quadi – against whom Aquileia was also employed as an operative base for the
Roman army – was the source of a veritable terror, that selfsame tantus timor which
some scholars have related to the metus gallicus whose origins go all the way back
to the Republican age. As for the plague, however much its effects can have been
overestimated, it is beyond doubt that in the perception of the contemporaries it was an epidemics whose lethal nature and long duration made extraordinary
measures necessary. Among these, much fabled was the fact that the Emperor
resorted to rituals of various types – including sacra peregrina – with the aim of
purifying the city of Rome and the army which was engaged along the borders of
the Empire. A figure who stands out as particularly relevant to this is an Egyptian
priest who belonged to Marcus Aurelius’ retinue: Arnouphis, a sacred scribe and
bearer of a certain specific competence in the sphere of ritual practices, whose
presence in Aquileia is testified by a dedication to the goddess Isis.
