Inscription for a slave

[Jona Lendering]

This inscription I saw in the Leiden museum for antiquities. There's no real problem with the texts, if you accept that servos is a mistake for servus.

So, this is a tombstone erected by a legionary for his slave. I was wondering: are there parallels - are there other tombstones for slaves mentioning the legion of their master?

[Praefectusclassis]

I was thinking of the tombstone of Halotus from Cologne, but he's prolly a libertus (CIL XIII 8271)

[S SEVERUS]

Two weeks ago I saw a tombstone in the archaeological museum of Arles (France) with a beautiful text for a slave boy who died young. It struck me that so many years ago a roman master could be so gentle as on this tombstone. But it wasn't from a soldier but probably from a citizen.

[Malko Linge]

There is also an centurio in Britanna;

Belegstelle: RIB 00471
Provinz: Britannia Ort: Chester / Deva
|(Centuria) Atti / Cele/ris

In one of my books "The Roman inscriptions in the Grosvenor Museum Chester", they wrote for this inscription, .... it well have come from the Traijanic fortress-wall.

May be the same person?


Malko Linge
___________

(Christian)

[Jona Lendering]

Nice to learn that there are parallels. I would never have suspected that slaves were sort of reckoned to belong to the legion's family, and could be identified as such. Perhaps it's only natural, because these people were living really close together.

[Praefectusclassis]

Have you considered Marcus Caelius?

[Jona Lendering]

Indeed, the relatives of Marcus Caelius also commemorate his freedmen, who apparently joined him on his campaign. This is an interesting subject; I've never read about this before.

[rkmvca1]

back to the original tombstone. My Latin's not so good.

SENILIS Q ATTI
CELERIS LEG IIII
SCYTICAE SERVOS
VIXIT ANN XX

Senilis Q Atti -- a name? of the slave or master?

Celeris Leg IIII "swift?" (?? a rank??) 4th Legion

Scyticae Servos -- Scythian servant (slave) , or:
IIII Leg Scyticae -- 4th Legion, "Scythians" ?

Vixit Ann XX -- should be "lived 20 years"?

Is that close?

rkmvca1/Rich Klein

[Praefectusclassis]

Close

It says Senilis, slave of Quintus Attius Celer of Legio IIII Scythica, lived 20 years.

[Malko Linge]

You forgott something:

SENILIS Q ATTI
CELERIS 7LEG IIII
SCYTICAE SERVOS
VIXIT ANN XX

Quintus Attius Celer is centurio.


Malko Linge
__________
(Christian)

[Peroni]

post deleted

Christian beat me to it!

[rkmvca1]

Hey, I was close!

Thanks everybody. I also noticed the "7", but ... that's not a latin number or letter to my knowledge. What is it?

Rich

[Peroni]

It isn't a number 7 but a [size=150:3163o80a]> [/size] symbol. It is used to denote century or centurio

[rkmvca1]

Ah, thank you! I assume this is where our chevron-designation for non-commissioned soldiers ultimately came from.

Also, if I can ask another question, what is the estimated date for this tombstone? The stonecutter used what appear to be "commas" to delineate most words. To my knowledge this was not a consistent practice -- I recall seeing 'dots' (elevated periods) on some inscriptions, and spaces on others, and pretty much run-on letters on others.

This is why I like forums like this.

Rich

[Praefectusclassis]

The name of IIII Scythica doesn't really help. According to Ritterling the legion had this name from Augustus' reign.
The quality of the inscription and the lack of DM (which is almost ubiquitous from the 2nd C CE), points to the first century AD, but it's always very hard to date such inscriptions.