Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-19T06:22:44.473Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Permissu decurionum

Freed Persons and Burial Management in the Collective Tomb of the Volusii*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2024

Sinclair W. Bell
Affiliation:
Northern Illinois University
Dorian Borbonus
Affiliation:
University of Dayton, Ohio
Rose MacLean
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Get access

Summary

This chapter discusses a group of inscriptions that include formulas granting permission for burial in a collective tomb on the Via Appia. These epigraphic formulas speak to the careful management of a resource that was of importance in a community in which enslaved and freed persons constituted the majority: the successful acquisition of a respectable burial. Curiously, these permissions are sometimes given out by the decurions of an association and in other cases by the aristocratic patriarchs. This suggests that the agency to grant these permissions did not rest exclusively with either enslavers or dependents, but more importantly the epigraphic commemoration of these arrangements may pay deference to the authority of the association and the aristocratic patrons. Taken as a group, the inscriptions thus appear to reflect a carefully choreographed interaction between enslaved, manumitted, freeborn, and aristocratic members of the gens Volusia. This reading complements interpretations of freed persons’ funerary culture as self-representations by positing that these funerary monuments are also concerned with securing burial privileges in the collective tomb.

Type
Chapter
Information
Freed Persons in the Roman World
Status, Diversity, and Representation
, pp. 30 - 55
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arce, J. 2010. “Roman Imperial Funerals in effigie.” In The Emperor and Rome: Space, Representation, and Ritual, ed. Ewald, B. C. and Noreña, C. F., 309–23. Cambridge and New York.Google Scholar
Borbonus, D. 2014. Columbarium Tombs and Collective Identity in Augustan Rome. New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borbonus, D. 2021. “Countering Inequality through Organized Collective Burial in Imperial Rome.” In Inequality in Antiquity. Tracing the Archaeological Record, ed. Cerasuolo, O., 309–28. Buffalo.Google Scholar
Borg, B. E. 2019. Roman Tombs and the Art of Commemoration: Contextual Approaches to Funerary Customs in the Second Century CE. Cambridge and New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boschung, D. 1987. Antike Grabaltäre aus den Nekropolen Roms. Bern.Google Scholar
Bradley, J. W. 2018. The Hypogeum of the Aurelii: A New Interpretation as the Collegiate Tomb of Professional scribae. Oxford.Google Scholar
Brizio, E. 1876. Pitture e sepolcri scoperti sull’Esquilino della Campagnia fondaria italiana. Rome.Google Scholar
Buonocore, M. 1982–84. “Girolamo Amati e il ‘Monumentum Volusiorum ad Viam Appiam’.” RendPontAcc 55–56: 447–59.Google Scholar
Buonocore, M. 1984. Schiavi e liberti dei Volusi Saturnini. Rome.Google Scholar
Caldelli, M. L., Crea, S., and Ricci, C.. 2004. “Donare, emere, vendere, ius habere, possidere, concedere, similia: donazione e compravendita, proprietà, possesso, diritto sul sepolcro a diritti di sepoltura.” In Libitina e Dintorni: atti dell’XI Rencontre Franco-Italienne sur l’Épigraphie, 310–49. Rome.Google Scholar
Camodeca, G. 2003. “L’attività dell’ordo decurionum nelle città della Campania dalla documentazione epigrafica.” Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz 14: 173–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, J. R. 1998. “Sex, Death, and Status: Nilotic Tomb Imagery, Apotropaic Magic, and Freedman Acculturation.” In La peinture funéraire antique, IVe siècle av. J.-C.–IVe siècle ap. J.-C., ed. Barbet, A., 8591. Paris.Google Scholar
D’Andrea, F. 2018. “Il sepolcro del liberto Epaphroditus: Una proposta di identificazione e nuovi spunti di riflessione sugli horti dell’Esquilino sud-orientale.” MÉFRA 103: 143–64.Google Scholar
Dexheimer, D. 2001. “Portrait Figures on Funerary Altars of Roman liberti in Northern Italy: Romanization or the Assimilation of Attributes Characterizing Higher Social Strata?” In Burial, Society, and Context in the Roman World, ed. Pearce, J., Millett, M., and Struck, M., 7884. Oxford.Google Scholar
Di Stefano Manzella, I. 2008. “Q(uniti) N(epos) o Q(uinti) N(ostri)? Tre are della famiglia degli Antigoni nel Monumentum Volusiorum, fra datio loci e permissus.” In Epigrafia 2006: Atti della XIV Rencontre sur l’épigraphie in onore di Silvio Panciera, ed. Orlandi, S., Caldelli, M. L., and Gregori, G. L., 299322. Rome.Google Scholar
Ebel, E. 2004. Die Attraktivität früher christlicher Gemeinden: die Gemeinde von Korinth im Spiegel griechisch-römischer Vereine. Tübingen.Google Scholar
Eck, W. 2010. “Emperor and Senatorial Aristocracy in Competition for Public Space.” In The Emperor and Rome: Space, Representation, and Ritual, ed. Ewald, B. C. and Noreña, C. F., 89110. Cambridge and New York.Google Scholar
Engels, D. 1990. Roman Corinth: An Alternative Model for the Classical City. Chicago.Google Scholar
Flower, H. I. 1996. Ancestor Masks and Aristocratic Power in Roman Culture. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galvão-Sobrinho, C. 2012. “Feasting the Dead Together: Household Burials and the Social Strategies of Slaves and Freed Persons in the Early Principate.” In Free at Last! The Impact of Freed Slaves on the Roman Empire, ed. Bell, S. and Ramsby, T., 130–76. London.Google Scholar
Giovagnoli, M. 2014. “Ancora sulla Societas Cantorum Graecorum (CIL, I2 2519).” RivFil 142.1: 91102.Google Scholar
Green, P. 1972. The Shadow of the Parthenon: Studies in Ancient History and Literature. London.Google Scholar
Grubbs, J. E. 2002. “Stigmata Aeterna: A Husband’s Curse.” In Vertis in usum: Studies in Honor of Edward Courtney, ed. Miller, J. F., Damon, C., and Myers, K. S., 230–42. Munich and Leipzig.Google Scholar
Hasegawa, K. 2005. The familia urbana During the Early Empire. A Study of columbaria Inscriptions. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleiner, D. E. E. 1987. Roman Imperial Funerary Altars With Portraits. Rome.Google Scholar
Knapp, R. 2011. Invisible Romans. Cambridge, MA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milano, I., and Pistarino, V.. 2008. “Le Iscrizioni Sepolcrali con una Formula LDDD in Italia.” In Le quotidien municipal dans l’Occident romain, ed. Berrendonner, C. and Cébeillac-Gervasoni, M., 687713. Clermont-Ferrand.Google Scholar
Mouritsen, H. 2005. “Freedmen and Decurions: Epitaphs and Social History in Imperial Italy.” JRS 95: 3863.Google Scholar
Mouritsen, H. 2013. “Slavery and Manumission in the Roman Elite: A Study of the Columbaria of the Volusii and Statilii.” In Roman Slavery and Roman Material Culture, ed. George, M., 4368. Toronto.Google Scholar
Petersen, L. H. 2006. The Freedman in Roman Art and Art History. Cambridge and New York.Google Scholar
Schrumpf, S. 2006. Bestattung und Bestattungswesen im römischen Reich: Ablauf, soziale Dimension und ökonomische Bedeutung der Totenfürsorge im lateinischen Westen. Göttingen.Google Scholar
Scullard, H. H. 2014. A History of the Roman World 753–146 BC. London and New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinn, F. 1987. Stadtrömische Marmorurnen. Mainz.Google Scholar
Smodlaka Kotur, A. 1993. “TFI on Inscriptions of Salona.” RIDA 40: 317–30.Google Scholar
Stevens, S. 2017. City Boundaries and Urban Development in Roman Italy. Leuven.Google Scholar
Terpstra, T. T. 2013. Trading Communities in the Roman World: A Micro-economic and Institutional Perspective. Leiden and Boston.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treggiari, S. 1975. “Family Life among the Staff of the Volusii.” TAPA 105: 393401.Google Scholar
Waltzing, J. P. 1900. Étude historique sur les corporations professionnelles chez les Romains depuis les origines jusqu’à la chute de l’Empire d’Occident, 4 vols. Louvain.Google Scholar
Weaver, P. 1997. “Children of Junian Latins.” In The Roman Family in Italy. Status, Sentiment, Space, ed. Rawson, B. and Weaver, P., 5572. Canberra and Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zanker, P. 1975. “Grabreliefs römischer Freigelassener.” JdI 90: 267315.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×