Freedmen and decurions: Epitaphs and social history in imperial Italy

Journal of Roman Studies

Volumn 95, Issue , 2005, Pages 38-63

  Mouritsen, Henrik ^a  

^a KING'S COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34347282779     PISSN: 00754358     EISSN: 1753528X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3815/000000005784016315     Document Type: Review

References (65)

1. e.g. K. Hopkins, 'On the probable age structure of the Roman population', Population Studies 20 (1966-67), 245-64
2. M. Clauss, 'Probleme der Lebensalterstatistiken aufgrund römischer Grabinschriften', Chiron 3 (1973), 395-417
3. G. Pereira Menaut, 'Probleme der globalen Betrachtung der römischen Inschriften', Bonner Jahrbücher 175 (1975), 141-64
4. W. Suder, 'L'Utilizzazione delle iscrizioni sepolchrali romane nelle ricerche demografiche', Rivista Storica di Antichitá 5 (1975), 217-28
5. H. Wolff, 'Zum Erkenntniswert von Namenstatistiken für die römische Bürgerrechtspolitik der Kaiserzeit', in Studien zur antiken Sozialgeschichte. Festschrift Friedrich Vittinghoff (1980), 228-55
6. J. C. Mann, 'Epigraphic consciousness', JRS 75 (1985), 204-6
7. D. B. Martin, 'The construction of the ancient family: methodological considerations', JRS 86 (1996), 40-60
8. G. R. Storey and R. R. Paine, 'Latin funerary inscriptions. Another attempt at demographic analysis', in Atti. XI Congresso Internationale di Epigrafia Greca e Latina (1999), I, 847-62
9. L. R. Taylor, 'Freedmen and freeborn in the epitaphs of Imperial Rome', AJP 82 (1961), 113-32
10. J. H. D'Arms, 'Puteoli in the second century of the Roman Empire: a social and economic study', JRS 64 (1974), 104-24
11. The figures are 172 to 63, cf. M. Chelotti, V. Morizio and M. Silvestrini (eds), Le epigrafi romane di Canosa II (1990), 256
12. T. Frank, 'Race mixture in the Roman Empire', American Historical Review 21 (1915-16), 689-708
13. G. De Sanctis, Rivista di Filologia 53 (1925), 287-9, cf. 599f
14. A. Calderini, Aquileia Romana (1930), 417
15. M. L. Gordon, 'The nationality of slaves under the early Roman Empire', JRS 14 (1924), 93-111
16. S. Mrozek, 'À propos de la repartition chronologique des inscriptions latines dans le Haut-Empire', Epigraphica 35 (1973), 113-18
17. R. MacMullen, 'The epigraphic habit of the Roman Empire', AJP 103 (1982), 233-46
18. E. A. Meyer, 'Explaining the epigraphic habit in the Roman Empire: the evidence of epitaphs', JRS 80 (1990), 74-96
19. I. Morris, Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (1992), 167-73
20. G. Woolf, 'Monumental writing and the expansion of Roman society in the early Empire', JRS 86 (1996), 22-39
21. M. F. Squarciapino et al., Scavi di Ostia III, 1. Le necropoli repubblicane e augustee (1958)
22. G. Calza, La Necropoli del Porto di Roma nell'Isola Sacra (1940)
23. H. Thylander, Inscriptions du port d'Ostie (1952)
24. cf. W. Eck, 'Aussagefähigkeit epigraphischer Statistik und die Bestattung von Sklaven im kaiserzeitlichen Rom', in P. Kneissl and V. Losemann (eds), Alte Geschichte und Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Festschrift für Karl Christ zum 65. Geburtstag (1988), 130-9
25. H. Solin, Beiträge zur Kenntniss der griechischen Personennamen in Rom, Commentationes humanarum litterarum 48 (1971)
26. idem, 'Griechische und römische Sklavennamen. Eine vergleichende Untersuchung', in H. Bellen and H. Heinen (eds), Fünfzig Jahre Forschungen zur antiken Sklaverei an der Mainzer Akademie 1950-2000 (2001), 307-30
27. cf. I. Kajanto, The Latin Cognomina, Commentationes humanarum litterarum 36 (1965)
28. and C. Pavolini, La vita quotidiana a Ostia (1986), 36-46, who both assumed that the onomastic distribution of Latin and Greek cognomina directly reflected those of the population as a whole. Others have been more cautious
29. For a general discussion of the freedmen's economic roles see H. Mouritsen, 'Roman freedmen in the urban economy: Pompeii in the first century A.D.', in F. Senatore (ed.), Pompei fra Sorrento e Sarno (2001), 1-27
30. Likewise F. M. Ausbüttel, Untersuchungen zu den Vereinen im Westen des römischen Reiches, FAS 11 (1982), 42-8, observed that: 'Sie waren keineswegs besitzlos, sondern verfügten über ein mehr oder weniger grosses Vermögen, um am Vercinsleben teilnehmen zu können' (47), while adding that, particularly in Rome and Ostia, the members would have been wealthier than in smaller towns
31. F. H. Wilson, 'Studies in the social and economic history of Ostia', PBSR 13 (1935), 41-68
32. J. H. D'Arms, 'Notes on municipal notables of imperial Ostia', AJP 97 (1976), 386-411
33. sceptical, H. Mouritsen, 'Mobility and social change in Italian towns during the Principate', in H. M. Parkins (ed.), Roman Urbanism. Beyond the Consumer City (1998), 59-82
34. L. Vidman, Fasti Ostienses (1982)
35. V. Kockel, Die Grabbauten vor dem Herkulaner Tor in Pompeji (1983)
36. Pompei oltre la vita. Nuove testimonianze dalle necropoli (1998)
37. For the burials of the poor in Pompeii see F. Senatore, 'Necropoli e società nell'antica Pompei: considerazioni su un sepolcreto di poveri', in F. Senatore (ed.), Pompei, il Vesuvio e la Penisola Sorrentina (1999), 91-121
38. For an expression of the conventional view see e.g. S. L. Dyson, Community and Society in Roman Italy (1992), 147-53
39. See also, A. Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum (1996), 118-42
40. For publicly sponsored funerals see in general G. Wesch-Klein, Funus Publicum. Eine Studie zur öffentlichen Beisetzung und Gewährung von Ehrengräbern in Rom und den Westprovinzen (1993)
41. cf. V. Hope, 'A roof over the dead: communal tombs and family structure', in R. Laurence and A. Wallace-Hadrill (eds), Domestic Space in the Roman World: Pompeii and Beyond, JRA Suppl. 22 (1997), 69-88
42. G. Spano, 'La tomba dell'edile C. Vestorio Prisco in Pompei', Mem.Acc.Linc. 7, 3 (1943), 237-315
43. M. Conticello de' Spagnolis, 'Sul rinvenimento della villa e del monumento funerario dei Lucretii Valentes', Rivista di Studi Pompeiani 6 (1993/4), 147-66
44. C. Chiavia, Programmata. Manifesti elettorali nella colonia romana di Pompei (2002), 133f., 163, 298f
45. W. F. Jashemski, The Gardens of Pompeii (1979), I, 148f., II, 256
46. and M. Pagano, 'Un palinsesto epigrafico a Castellammare di Stabia: l'iscrizione funeraria di Q. Postumius Modestus, magistrato di Pompei', MEFRA 113 (2001), 947-52
47. U. Pappalardo, 'Nuove testimonianze su Marco Nonio Balbo ad Ercolano', RM 104 (1997), 417-33
48. M. Pagano, 'Iscrizione della statua di Marco Nonio Balbo posta davanti alle Terme Suburbane', Rivista di Studi Pompeiani 2 (1998), 238f., who published yet another dedication to the Nonii, this time put up by one of their freedmen
49. The identification is questioned by G. Guadagno, 'Supplemento epigrafico ercolancse II', Cronache Ercolanesi 11 (1981), 129-64, at 154f
50. See also M. Pagano, 'La nuova pianta della città e di alcuni edifici pubblici di Ercolano', Cronache Ercolanesi 26 (1996), 229-62, at 230
51. idem, 'Rome and the outside world: senatorial families and the world they lived in', in B. Rawson and P. Weaver (eds), The Roman Family in Italy: Status, Sentiment, Space (1997), 73-99
52. There are clear similarities between Trimalchio's and Naevoleia Tyche's monuments, both containing visual representations of the dedicator, of public munificence, and of a sea-going ship in addition to a detailed account of public honours. Another parallel from Brixia is discussed in E. Hübner, 'Zum Denkmal des Trimalchio', Hermes 13 (1878), 414-22
53. Thus, in the Porta Nocera necropolis a total of 156 stelae have been found, 49 of which were inscribed. It remains possible that the stelae might have carried painted inscriptions, which have since disappeared, although no traces of paint have been reported by the excavators
54. idem, Römische Grabbauten (1992)
55. cf. M. King, 'Commemoration of infants on Roman funerary inscriptions', in G. J. Oliver (ed.), The Epigraphy of Death. Studies in the History and Society of Greece and Rome (2000), 117-54
56. On the status of freedmen, see in general W. W. Buckland, The Roman Law of Slavery (1908), 437ff
57. G. Fabre, Libertus. Recherches sur les rapports patron-affranchi à la fin de la République romaine (1981)
58. A. Watson, Roman Slave Law (1987), 23-45
59. J. F. Gardner, Being a Roman Citizen (1993), 7-51
60. and W. V. Harris, 'Demography, geography and the sources of Roman slaves', JRS 89 (1999), 62-75, does not affect this point since the freedmen were drawn almost exclusively from a small sub-section of the slave population - the skilled urban slaves working in large households
61. cf. P. Zanker, 'Grabreliefs römischer Freigelassener', JDAI 90 (1975), 267-315
62. D. Kleiner, Roman Group Portraiture. The Funerary Reliefs of the Late Republic and Early Empire (1977)
63. H. G. Frenz, Römische Grabreliefs in Mittel- und Süditalien (1985)
64. V. Kockel, Porträtreliefs stadtrömischer Grabbauten. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte und zum Verständnis des spätrepublikanisch- frühkaiserzeitlichen Privatporträts (1993)
65. and B. Raw-son, Children and Childhood in Roman Italy (2003), 31. Also Trimalchio insisted that both his wife and his son should be represented next to himself on his funerary monument, Sat. 71