Épitaphe d'un soldat africain d'Héraclius servant dans une unité indigène, découverte à Constantinople

One of the cruciform stelae of Constantinople recently published by H. Kalkan et S. Şahin bears an unusual epitaph, which is reedited here. Our revision of the text demonstrates that it mentions not one person, as the first editors believed, but two: the defunct, a soldier named Theodore, native of Mauretania, and his commander Zar, praefectus gentis of Zarakianoi in Tripolitania. The presence of a Tripolitanian tribal unit in Constantinople is linked to the final stage of Heraclius' revolt (October 610). This late attestation of an African praefectus gentis (not recognized by the editors) prompts a revision in an Appendix of the well known dedication from Altava (CIL VIII, 9835 etc.) which also features a tribal praefectus.