A nameless young slave
slave · Roman Empire · c. 1st–3rd century
A slave who died young while waiting to be freed, known only from two lines on a gravestone. Epitaphs speak in the voice of the dead, but whether the words were composed by the dead person, the family or the stonecutter cannot be known.
Posts
c. 1st–3rd century · “The law” is taken to be the law of AD 4 that made it hard to free a slave under thirty outright. The date is not known exactly; it is put here in the early centuries of the Roman Empire, when most such epitaphs were cut.
The freedom that was owed to me in my youth, and denied by the law, an early death has given back for ever.
Debita libertas iuveni mihi lege negata
morte immatura reddita perpetua est.Bücheler, Carmina Latina Epigraphica 1015 (CLE 1015)
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us