Recherches sur la résurgence du vocabulaire sémitique dans le langage religieux des provinces romaines d'Afrique : le cas du terme moctor

Abstract

AbstractAmong the members of a religious college revealed by a monumental Latin inscription recently discovered in the medina of Sousse (Hadrumetum, Proconsular Africa), there is a member in charge of moctor. This is in fact an unprecedented function among the clergy of the temples of the Roman-African cities. It seems to have been formed from the Semitic consonantal skeleton KTR or QTR, which we find in KTRT (incense) and QTRT (perfume) words. Thus, it is quite possible that moctor is a nominal Semitic form of the root KTR / QTR prefixed with M to designate in the Phoenicio-Punic etymology the ‘offering to incense’. This evidence of a function of Semitic origin in a Latin inscription is not unusual when one understands the privileged place occupied by incense in rituals of Punic and Oriental cults. Similarly, the presence of this function is not surprising in a city with a significant Phoenician-Punic foundation and heritage. If this comparison is plausible, we will have here additional evidence of the resurgence of the religious vocabulary of Semitic origin among the religious language of the Roman provinces of Africa.