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Suggestions of Sentiment: The Epitaphs of Tomb 87 (Isola Sacra) *
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2015
Abstract
Epigraphic material has traditionally been used to explore a variety of topics ranging from demography to family relationships, but the subject of emotion is not often addressed. In this paper I examine three inscriptions which were discovered in situ in Tomb 87 at the cemetery at Isola Sacra. The paper provides a detailed analysis of these inscriptions within both their immediate context and the broader context of the body of epigraphic material discovered at the cemetery. Here I comment on the function of the inscriptions in relation to their location in the tomb and identify evidence related to the expression of emotion. I focus on the extent to which sentiment could be an element in the commemorative practice of ordinary Romans in the early centuries AD with a particular emphasis on the relationship between freedman and patron.
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- Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2011
Footnotes
*
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies (ASCS 30) hosted by the University of Sydney in February 2009. It is my pleasure to thank the late Dr Bill Gale and Mrs Janet Gale whose generosity in awarding the Annual Macquarie Gale Travelling Fellowship in Graeco-Roman History enabled me to travel to Italy in 2008 for the purposes of researching this paper. I would also like to thank Maureen Carroll for kindly allowing me to view an advance copy of her forthcoming publication ‘'The mourning was very good.’ Liberation and Liberality in Roman Funerary Commemoration”, in V. Hope and J. Huskinson (eds), Memory and Mourning: Studies on Roman Death (Oxford, Oxbow 2011) 125-48, and the anonymous readers for Antichthon for their helpful suggestions.
References
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2 Admittedly there are some obvious differences between this example and the material discussed below: Cicero was writing mid-first century BC and refers to a shrine rather than a tomb or grave, whereas the tombs and inscriptions at Isola Sacra date from the first three centuries AD. I have used this example, however, not only because it illustrates the extent to which an individual could be affected by the grief associated with death, but because Cicero felt that building a memorial, though painful to design, might help in some way to alleviate his distress. On Cicero's distress at the death of Tullia see Evans, Kathleen M., ‘“Interrupted by fits of weeping”: Cicero's Major Depressive Disorder and the Death of Tullia’, History of Psychiatry 18.1 (2007) 81–102Google Scholar; on his motives for building the shrine, 90-1.
3 CIL 6.16631 : d(is) m(anibus) / miniciae / marcellae / fundani f(iliae) / v(ixit) a(nnis) XII m(ensibus) XI d(iebus) VII (‘To the gods of the underworld for Minicia Marcella, daughter of Fundanus, who lived twelve years, eleven months and seven days’). There is a discrepancy between the age at death recorded on the altar and that given by Pliny: on this see Bodel, John, ‘Minicia Marcella: Taken before Her Time’, AIP 116.3 (1995) 453–60Google Scholar. who presents a convincing argument which resolves this problem.
4 Hopkins, , Death (n. 1) 204Google Scholar.
5 135 inscriptions have been found in situ. For the corpus of inscriptions derived from Portus, including those from Isola Sacra, see Thylander, H., Inscriptions du Port d'Ostie (Lund 1952)Google Scholar and for inscriptions from Isola Sacra (a revision of Thylander's series A which incorporates inscriptions found since that publication) see Helttula, A. (ed.), Le Iscrizioni sepolcrali latine nell'Isola Sacra (Roma 2007). All the inscriptions mentioned are referred to by number and prefaced by T (Thylander) and H (Helttula)Google Scholar.
6 Hope, V., ‘A Roof over the Dead’, in Laurence, Ray and Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew (eds), Domestic Space in the Roman World: Pompeii and Beyond, JRA Supplementary Series 22 (Portsmouth 1997) 70-88Google Scholar; D'Ambra, E., ‘A Myth for a Smith: A Meleager Sarcophagus from a Tomb in Ostia’, AJA 92.1 (1988) 85–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Peterson, L.H., The Freedman in Roman Art and Art History (Cambridge 2006)Google Scholar. See also Nielsen, H. Sigismund, “The Physical Context of Roman Epitaphs and the Structure of the Roman Family’, in Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 23 (Copenhagen 1996) 35–60Google Scholar.
7 Peterson, , Freedmen (n. 6) 185Google Scholar.
8 Ibid. 217.
9 There are twelve instances of freedman-to-patron commemoration at Porras; of these only six (including Tomb 87) are of secure provenance.
10 On the layout of the cemetery see Toynbee, Jocelyn, Death and Burial in the Roman World (London 1996) 82–7Google Scholar.
11 Tupman notes that the tombe a cassone are stylistically very similar to, and may indeed be the precursors of, the cupae monuments of Barcelona. See Tupman, Charlotte, ‘The Cupae of Iberia in their Monumental Contexts: A Study of the Relationship between Social Status and Commemoration with Barrel-Shaped and Semi-Cylindrical Tombstones’, in Bruhn, J. and Croxford, B. (eds), TRAC 2004: Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference in Durham (Oxford 2005)119–32Google Scholar. for examples of cupae at Rome, 123, and the tombe a cassone at Ostia, 125. For a general description of the different monument types at Isola Sacra see Toynbee, , Death and Burial (n. 10), 101–3 and 134–8Google Scholar. For more detailed descriptions of individual tombs see Baldassarre, Ida, Bragantini, Irene, Morselli, Chiara and Taglietti, Franca, Necropoli di Porto: Isola Sacra, Nuova serie — itinerari dei musei, gallerie, scavi e monumenti d'Italia, 38 (Roma 1996)Google Scholar.
12 For the excavation of this tomb and others at the cemetery see Calza, G., La Necropoli del Porto di Roma nell'Isola Sacra (Rome 1940)Google Scholar.
13 Baldassarre, , Necropoli (n. 11 ) 74Google Scholar.
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15 For a photograph of the façade of the tomb showing the door still in place see Calza, , La Necropoli (n. 12) 84Google Scholar, fig. 32.
16 T 268 / H 106 (n. 5). For discussion and bibliography of all three inscriptions see Helttula, , Iscrizioni (n. 5) 122–7Google Scholar. The visibility of the plaque may have been further enhanced by the insertion of red paint into the lettering. Although no mention is made of this in Calza's report, traces of red paint found on other inscriptions at the cemetery indicate that this was the usual practice. On the use of colouring on inscriptions see Susini, G., The Roman Stonecutter: An Introduction to Latin Epigraphy (Oxford 1973) 29Google Scholar.
17 Hope, , Roof over the Dead (n. 6) 74Google Scholar.
18 On these structures, which are found in a number of tombs at Isola Sacra (and on communal dining at the cemetery), see Graham, E., “The Quick and the Dead in the Extra-Urban Landscape: The Roman Cemetery at Ostia/Portus as a Lived Environment’, in Bruhn, J., Croxford, B., and Grigoropoulos, D., (eds), TRAC 2004: Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference in Durham (Oxford 2005) 136–8Google Scholar.
19 T269/H107: P(ublius) Varius Ampelus/et Varia Ennuchis / fecerunt sibi et / Variae P(ublii) f(iliae) Servandae patronae / et libert(is) libertab(usque) posterisqu(ue) eorum / ita ne in hoc monimento / sarcophagum in feratur / h(oc) m(onumentum) h(eredem) f(amiliae) ex(ternae) non s(equitur) /in fronte p(edes) XS in agro p(edes) XXXIII. (‘Publius Varius Ampelus and Varia Ennuchis made [this monument] for themselves and for Varia Servanda, daughter of Publius, their patron, and for their freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants on the condition that no sarcophagus be introduced into this monument. This tomb will not pass to an heir outside the family. [This tomb] measures ten and three quarter feet in length, thirty three feet in width.’). To date replication of this kind of inscription (at Isola Sacra) is unique to Tomb 87.
20 For a black and white photograph of the chamber see Calza, , La Necropoli (n. 12) 114Google Scholar, fig. 47; for a coloured illustration, 118-9, tav. IV.
21 A mulberry tree is visible in Calza's photographs and beneath it the figure of Pyramus, who has committed suicide believing that Thisbe has been killed by a lioness; now only an image of Thisbe, plunging a dagger into her breast, remains. See Calza, , La Necropoli (n. 12) 117Google Scholar, fig. 49, and Peterson, , Freedmen (n. 6) 208Google Scholar, fig. 131.
22 Selene and Eros approach Endymion who is seated on some rocks, holding his spears; he is flanked by two dogs and appears to be sleeping. See Peterson, , Freedmen (n. 6) 209, fig. 132Google Scholar.
23 Nielsen, , Roman Epitaphs (n. 6) 46Google Scholar.
24 T 270 / H 108 (n. 5). The abbreviation DSP, which is unique to the inscriptions at the cemetery, has been translated as de sua pecunia (‘at their own expense’) by Calza, , La Necropoli (n. 12) 347Google Scholar, Thylander, Inscriptions (n. 5) 195 and Peterson, Hackworth, Freedmen (n. 6) 234Google Scholar, Helttula, while, Iscrizioni (n. 5) 126Google Scholar interprets it as de suoposuerunt (‘they placed it/positioned it/put it up’).
25 Hope, , Roof over the Dead (n. 6) 78Google Scholar. Peterson, , Freedmen (n. 6) 272Google Scholar n.97, identifies this inscription as the type referred to by Meyer, see below (n. 31). This is no doubt the reason for her assumption that Ampelus and Ennuchis were the heirs of Varia Servanda (see below). As the following discussion shows, the two inscriptions (that on the exterior wall of the tomb and that in the burial chamber) are quite distinct, as noted by Nielsen, , Roman Epitaphs (n. 6) 46Google Scholar.
26 85% name at least one other person in addition to the owner of the tomb; the relationship between the two is clearly stated in 95% of the sample.
27 See for instance T 274/H 38.
28 Peterson, , Freedmen (n. 6) 210Google Scholar.
29 Morris, I., Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge 1992) 56–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
30 On the duplication of plaques see Peterson, , Freedmen (n. 6) 213–4Google Scholar; she suggests that the duplication, particularly the repetition of names, may have been due to a desire on the part of Ampelus and Ennuchis to ‘ensure memory perpetuation’.
31 Meyer, E., ‘Explaining the Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire: The Evidence of Epitaphs’, JRA 80 (1990) 74–96Google Scholar. Meyer's argument has been challenged by Cherry who believes that ‘the habit of commemoration was driven largely by sentiment and affection, and that heirship was often probably no more that a contributing factor.’ See Cherry, D., ‘Re-Figuring the Roman Epigraphic Habit’, AHB 9.3/4 (1995) 143–56Google Scholar.
32 Meyer, , Epigraphic Habit (n. 31 ) 78Google Scholar.
33 These inscriptions are most commonly found on the tombe a cassone and in the interior spaces of the house tombs. Only 20% (five out of twenty-five) are found in situ on the exterior walls; 50% of those inscriptions in which the commemorator is included show the name of the commemorator first.
34 For other instances of this practice see Carroll, M., Spirits of the Dead: Roman Funerary Commemoration in Western Europe (Oxford 2006) 237Google Scholar and fig. 71: ‘two slaves Lucius Antistius Sarculo and Antistia Plutia from Rome “with their own funds” (de suo) paid to have the portrait stone made of their patron and patroness in the late first century BC’ (CIL VI 2170). Carroll, 128, notes that the erection of a monument by the commemorator out of his own funds (de suo) implies that there had been no legal obligation to do so.
35 For differing views on the relationship, including those of rick, see Peterson, , Freedmen (n. 6) 217Google Scholar; also Nielsen, , Roman Epitaphs (n. 6) 46Google Scholar.
36 Carroll, , Mourning (2011) 136Google Scholar.
37 On slave law and manumission see Carroll, , Mourning (2011) 126–8Google Scholar.
38 See Hope, , Roof over the Dead (n. 6) 81–2Google Scholar; Peterson, , Freedmen (n. 6) 214–5Google Scholar, on this and the relationship between tombs of this type and the domus, in terms of the location of burial spaces. According to this scheme the ashes of Ampelus and Ennuchis would have been placed in the niches on either side of Servanda and the enclosure would have been used by lesser household dependants and future generations.
39 On conventions and epithets (and the problems associated with the analysis of funerary epigraphy in general) see King, M., ‘Commemoration of Infants on Roman Funerary Inscriptions’, in Oliver, G.J. (ed.) The Epigraphy of Death: Studies in the History and Society of Greece and Rome (Liverpool 2000)117–55Google Scholar. and Nielsen, , ‘Interpreting Epithets in Roman Epitaphs’, in Rawson, Beryl and Weaver, Paul (eds) The Roman Family in Italy: Status, Sentiment, Space (Oxford 1999)169–204Google Scholar.
40 As noted by Nielsen, , Roman Epitaphs (n. 6) 46Google Scholar.
41 The plaque measures 31.5cm x 30.5 cm.
42 The extraction of information from other inscriptions is possible but problematic and will be addressed elsewhere.
43 T 186 / H 309; T 105 / H 202 = CIL 14.1030Google Scholar.
44 Peterson, , Freedmen (n.6) 210; 271Google Scholar, n. 58. The image is now preserved at the Museo di Ostia, inv. 10115; see LIMC, vol. 7, 605–7Google Scholar for domestic examples: House of M. Lucretius Fronto; House of Octavius Quortio; Casa della Venere in bikini; Naples Museum 111483.
45 Peterson, , Freedmen (n. 6) 209–10Google Scholar. cf. Cic, . Tuse. 1.92Google Scholar on sleep as death counterfeit.
46 D'Ambra, , Myth fora Smith (n. 6) 96Google Scholar.
47 For images of the mosaics at Ostia see Meiggs, R., Roman Ostia (Oxford 1973)Google Scholar plate 23; for this and Tomb 43 see opening page http.7/www.ostia-antica.org/ and Necropolis, tomb 43.