A New Interpretation of CIL 6.14672: Latin Legalism and Greek Philosophical Epigram
CIL 6.14672 is a Greco-Latin bilingual funerary monument established for Cerellia
Fortunata by her husband Encolpus that was incorporated into a columbarium near the Villa
Pamphili in Rome. Prior treatments of this inscription have been simple translations (Hunt 2007,
Shore 1997), general commentary (Moretti 1963, Kunst 2000, Hunt 2007), and arguments about
the Latin or Greek with hardly any discussion about both (Niebhur 1822, Cougney 1890,
Henzen, 1882). Since the editio princeps (Muratori 1740), commentators have argued over the
personages contained in the Latin text and devoted little attention to its significance; nearly
always they ignored the Greek epigram (Niebuhr 1822, Kaibel 1878). Decades later the
inscription received more interest, but each component was treated in isolation.
I argue for a new interpretation of the monument that views the stone as a synthetic
document whose constituent elements in Latin and Greek contextualize one another. Both
languages serve as a basis to explore the degree to which these “Greek” freedmen identified, or
sought to identify, with their conception of Greek culture on their funerary monument in light of
their perceived Romanitas. To do this, I apply a new observation about the phases in which the
inscription was cut, as well as current research in bilingualism in the ancient world (Adams
2002).
A look at the different phases in which the text was inscribed on the stone, determined by
letter size and character, allows for a nuanced reading that reveals an ongoing process by which
both the bereaved and deceased conceptualized and expressed their identity. On the one hand,
the Latin portion of the inscription contains the traditional sepulchral accoutrements, including
abbreviations, as well as a highly technical legal text employing the ius sepulcri familiare. The
Greek text consists of two poems, one in Iambic trimeters and the other in elegiac couplets, both
of which express Epicurean beliefs. At first glance, one could imagine some readers getting lost
in the Latin legal text and choosing to walk by, for the inscription looks like one long, continuous
text that appears to have just one subject. The overall effect of the Greek epigram, then, shocks
the reader out of the Latin text and turns his attention to a different and rather personal text,
which makes this hidden morsel of Greek all the more tantalizing.
Thus, the inscription provides us with a complex look at the lives of these people through
two powerful texts highlighted by the phasing of the monument. Encolpus and Cerellia
constructed this at its various stages with the intent to appear as Roman as possible, while paying
homage to self-conceived notions of their cultural history. For these reasons, the stone offers
modern readers a window into the lives of two Greeks engaged in a struggle to cope with their
Romanitas in light of their ethnos. Although it is just one inscription, this monument provides a
view of a stratum of Roman society otherwise poorly documented through which we can begin
to understand other such inscriptions and further develop conversations about the “Greek”
experience under the Roman Empire.
Works Cited
Adams, JN; Janse, M; Swain, S (eds) (2002) Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language Contact
and the Written Text. Oxford.
Berger, A. (2004) Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law. Clarke, New Jersey.
Bett, R. (tr) (2000) Sextus Empiricus: Against the Ethicists: (Adversus Mathematicos XI).
Oxford.
Boulogue, J. (2003) Plutarque dans le mirir d’Epicure. Analyse d’une critique systematique
del’epicurisme. Villeneuve d’Ascq, France.
D’Ambra, E. (1998) Art and Identity in the Roman World. London.
Gordon, P. (1996) Epicurus in Lycia: the Second-Century world of Diogenes of Oenoanda. Ann
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Hunt, V. M. (2007) Death in Ancient Rome: A sourcebook. New York.
Inwood, B and Gerson, L. P. (tr) (1997) Hellenistic Philosophy. 2nd Ed. Cambridge.
Kunst, C. (2000) Roemische Wohn – und Lebesnwelten Quellen zue Geschichte der roemischen
Stadt. Darmstadt, Germany.
Lattimore, R. (1962) Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs. Chicago.
Shore, P. (1997) Rest Lightly. An Anthology of latin and Greek Tomb Inscriptions. Wauconda.
Solin, H (1971) Beiträge zur Kenntnis der griechischen Personennamen in Rom. Helsinki.
Editions of the inscription
Muratori, L. A. (1740) Novus Thesaurus Veterum Inscriptionum. Vol. 3, 1321. no. 10. Milan.
Niebuhr, B. G. (1822) Abhandlung der Berliner Akademie. Vol 2. 251ff. Berlin. (non vidi)
Kaibel, G. (1878) Epigrammata Graeca. Berlin.
Henzen, G. (1882) Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Berlin
Kaibel, G. (1890) Iscriptiones Graecae XIV. Berlin
Cougny, E. (1890) Epigrammatum Anthologiae Palatinae. Vol 3. Paris.
Dessau, H. (1892) Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae. Berlin.
Peek, W. (1955) Griechische Versinschriften. Berlin.
Moretti, L. (1968) Inscriptiones Graecae Urbis Romae. Rome.