FUNERARY INSCRIPTION OF A. CORNELIUS PRISCUS, 50-100 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN A(ulus) Cornelius A(uli) libertus) / Priscus, sagarius / de horreis Galbianis, / v(ivus) f(ecit) sibi et / Corneliae Dextri libert(ae) / Erotidi coniugi suae et / A(ulo) Cornelio A(uli) I(iberto) Romano / conliberto suo et /A(ulo) Cornelio A(uli) l(iberto) Corintho / liberto suo et / ceteris libertis / libertabusque omnibus / suis posterisque eorum. This tomb marker was found in 1898 during drain works near S. Paolo fuori le Mura, and hence probably came from the large necropolis of the via Ostiensis. It commemorates the freedman Aulus Cornelius Priscus, who, while living, had a tomb built for himself, his sexily-named wife Cornelia Erotis, his fellow freedman A. Cornelius Romanus, his own freedman A. Cornelius Corinthus, all his other freedmen and freedwomen, and their descendants. Freed slave solidarity! But the most interesting part of the inscription is where Priscus is described as a "sagarius de horreis Galbianis", a wool cloak (sagum) maker in the Horrea Galbiana, a warehouse/market built between the river and the Aventine cliffs by an ancestor of the short-lived emperor Galba. He must have made a lot of money to have built a tomb large enough to hold everyone he names. They were plausibly his co-workers.

#EpigraphyTuesday introduces us to a cloak-maker, Priscus, a #freedman of the #gensCornelia working in the huge warehouse / market of the #HorreaGalbiana down the #Tiber near the #Emporium in #Rome. #AncientBluesky 🏺