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Freedmen and Decurions: Epitaphs and Social History in Imperial Italy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2010

Henrik Mouritsen
Henrik Mouritsen
Affiliation:
King's College London, henrik.mouritsen@kcl.ac.uk
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Extract

The article investigates the social profile of Roman funerary epigraphy, focusing on Ostia and Pompeii, and reconsiders the predominant role of freedmen in this material. Comparing the epigraphic behaviour of decurions and freedmen, it concludes that the ‘epigraphic habit’ was not uniformly adopted throughout Roman society; different classes used inscriptions in different ways and for different purposes. The epitaphs do not therefore reflect the overall composition of the Roman population as much as the particular concerns and aspirations of individual social groups and categories within it.

Keywords

ROMAN FREEDMENDECURIONSFUNERARY EPITAPHSROMAN ITALYROMAN SOCIAL HISTORYOSTIAPOMPEI
Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 95 , November 2005 , pp. 38 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © Henrik Mouritsen 2005. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

* I am grateful for the valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper by R. Duncan-Jones, R. Flemming, R. Ling, J. Pearce, J. Reynolds, U. Roth, C. Roueché, and J. Webster, as well as for the suggestions made by the JRS Editorial Committee. W. Scheidel and F. Senatore kindly showed me their work in advance of publication. Particular thanks are due to W. Eck for his help and advice.

Inscriptions are referred to using the following abbreviations and conventions:

Roman numerals followed by Arabic numbers refer to Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.

PN followed by letters refers to D'Ambrosio and De Caro, see n. 36.

Numbers followed by ES/OS/EN refer to Un impegno per Pompei, see n. 36.

EE = Ephemeris Epigraphica 8 (1899).

AE = Année Epigraphique.

NSc = Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità.

MRG = Miscellanea Greca e Romana 13 (1988).