TOMBSTONE OF C. POMPONIUS HERACON, C2 CE. CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS D(is) M(anibus). / C(aio) Pomponio / Heraconti / dulcissimo, / M(arcus) Ulpius Hera / et Valeria Sa/tornina (!), pa/rentes, harchi/tecto (!), eabro (!) / nabali (!) optumo (!); / vixit annos XXV. "For the souls departed. The parents Marcus Ulpius Hera and Valeria Saturnina (had this made) for their sweet (son) Caius Pomponius Heracon, great architect and builder of ships, (who) lived 25 years." This touching inscription is evenly though not deeply carved, and the letterforms are good. But the spelling is full of strange mistakes, which might indicate that the carver was illiterate in Latin. Each mistake on its own is forgivable, but five mistakes in a short epitaph? Luckily there's a rough outline of a ship carved below, to help comprehension.

#EpigraphyTuesday brings us to a tombstone from the C2 CE, found just outside the #PortaSalaria. It's a sad #inscription with odd spelling, commemorating Gaius Pomponius Heracon, an architect and ship-builder, dead at 25. #AncientBluesky 🏺

EPITAPH OF OCTAVIA ARBUSCULA, C. 50 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN Octavia L(uci) et ((mulieris)) liberta) Arbuscula /v(ixit) a(nnos) XXIII et mensens X. / Tuccia ((mulieris)) I(iberta) Urbana mater eius. / Terminus est vitae nostrae tertius et vicensimus /5 annus cum me florentem mei combussere parentes. / Vixi ego dum licuit superis acceptior una, / quoi nemo potuit verbis maledicere acerbo. / Crudele pater funus nati vidisse videris / et pia complexu mater spoliata senescens. /10 At tu, dulcis soror, extincto me solare parentes. /Crudelis Pluton, nimio saevite rapinae, // parce precor nostram iam lacerare domum. / Te, lapis, optestor leviter super ossa residas, / ne nostro doleat conditus officio./15 Desine iam frustra, mater mea, desine fletu te / miseram totos exagitare dies. / Namque dolor talis non nunc tibi contigit uni, / haec eadem et magnis regibus acciderunt. This epitaph from the via Salaria is dedicated to the freedwoman Octavia Arbuscula, who died aged 23 years and 10 months, by her mother, the freedwoman Tuccia Urbana. Both were freed by the unnamed wives of their former owners, as indicated by the backwards C, which stands as a short form of the generic "Gaiae", "of the wife". The epitaph is written with spelling mistakes in somewhat wonky distichs in two columns separated by a thyrsus. It's written in the voice of the deceased, who mentions her youth, expresses sorrow for her grieving parents and sister, and asks Pluto, god of the Underworld, not to be further cruel to her family. She urges her sister to stay close to their parents and her mother not to abandon herself to weeping, as death is a common tragedy of ordinary people and even of great kings.

Lots of text for this week's #EpigraphyTuesday, but don't get scared off: this is an interesting #epitaph found in 1733 in a #columbarium just outside #Rome by the #PortaSalaria, for a #freedwoman, written by her mother, also a #liberta, but in the voice of the deceased. #AncientBluesky 🏺 +ALT