13 - CUIUS MEMORIA VIVIT. On the Manifestation of Collective Memory in Fifteen Inscriptions from the Piazzale delle Corporazioni in Ostia

Summary

In this article the 15 dedicatory inscriptions from the Piazzale delle Corporazioni in Ostia are analysed with regard to their memory practices. The square, located behind Ostia's theatre, was once frequented by members of collegia that were connected to trade, and shippers and merchants from either in or out of town who rented a statio on the piazzale or visited the square. The theory of collective memory, with the notions that memory is a construct and it is always a group that remembers, is used to analyse how the dedicators of the inscriptions were able to have the memory of their honouree and themselves last through time. The analysis follows three established elements in a dedicatory inscription: the name of the honouree – with a focus on cognomina – his cursus honorum and the name(s) of the dedicators. I argue that the dedicators of an inscription were actively creating a memory through highlighting different elements within an inscription, while being aware of the epigraphical landscape. This highlighting could be done by differentiating between letter sizes, using spacing and centralisation of letters and words, and/ or setting a specific order to the different elements of an inscription.

INTRODUCTION

CORPUS

One of the best known and most visited monuments of Ostia is the Piazzale delle Corporazioni (Fig. 13.1). After the excavation of this building, Calza (1915, 178) referred to the piazzale as “il primo monumento ostiense, tra quelli fino ad oggi esplorati, che documenta in forma semplice e chiara la funzione commerciale di Ostia in rapporto a Roma”. It is on this square that the overseas trade connections and the collegia, the backbone of Ostia's social life in the second century AD, come to life. The piazzale was one of at least three public places in Ostia where statues with accompanying inscriptions were erected “to commemorate men with special merita” (Van der Meer 2009, 168; Wickert 1930). Here inscriptions were set up for men who were connected to an aspect of trade or to the community of traders who visited the square. In total 22 statue bases have been found which once stood on the piazzale. Fifteen of these bear, at least, a dedicatory inscription on the front of their bases, two (only) have a surviving inscription on one of the sides, and five statue bases have no surviving inscription at all.