![\"Side](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/side-view-of-the-situla-or-bucket-from-carthago-nova-with-the-text-highlighted-credit-j-g-gomez-carr.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Side view of the situla or bucket from Carthago Nova with the text highlighted. Credit: J. G. G\u00f3mez Carrasco<\/a> \/ CC BY 2.0<\/p>\n Archaeologists in southeastern Spain have uncovered a rare Roman inscription<\/a> that names a previously unknown governor of Hispania Citerior, shedding light on a little-documented period of Roman administration.<\/p>\n The engraved text, found on a metal vessel in Cartagena, identifies Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, a Roman official who held the extraordinary position of \u201cquaestor pro praetore.\u201d<\/p>\n The vessel, known as a sitella, was used for casting lots, a practice common in Roman public and religious life. The words sortes (tablets) and the governor\u2019s full name are inscribed across three lines on the object\u2019s outer surface.<\/p>\n This Roman inscription links directly to a stone text discovered in the 17th century, which referenced a \u201cquaestor pro praetore\u201d but left the name incomplete. The match in title and context has allowed researchers to confidently identify the man as Tricipitinus.<\/p>\n Rare office and rediscovered identity<\/p>\n Experts from the universities of Alicante, Murcia, and Rovira i Virgili, along with the Cartagena Port of Cultures Consortium and the city council, explained that this is only the second recorded case of someone holding this temporary governing role in the province. The discovery was published in the July 2025 issue of Bolet\u00edn del Archivo Epigr\u00e1fico<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tricipitinus\u2019 family background adds to the find\u2019s importance. The gens Lucretia was a prominent Roman lineage<\/a>, but the surname Tricipitinus had not appeared in inscriptions since the early fourth century BC.<\/p>\n Orthographic views of the metal vessel. Credit: J. G. G\u00f3mez Carrasco \/ CC BY 2.0<\/p>\n Its reappearance in Cartagena suggests a continuation of influence or at least legacy into the late Republic.<\/p>\n Roman inscription links an unknown governor to mining interests<\/p>\n Further evidence connects the governor to local mining. Lead ingots from the Cartagena-Mazarr\u00f3n area bear the name Spurius Lucretius, son of Spurius, abbreviated identically to the sitella.<\/p>\n Researchers believe the official and the mining figure may be the same person or closely related. This points to what Roman sources described as sors opportuna\u2014governors with business ties to their provinces.<\/p>\n![\"Orthographic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/orthographic-views-of-the-metal-vessel-credit-j-g-gomez-carrasco-cc-by-20.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n