3-037-341 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Bilingual Funerary Inscription, A.D. 14-100. Additional Info: Roman law allowed formerly enslaved individuals to own others as slaves. This modest plaque commemorates such complex relationships. Its bilingual inscription, written first in Latin, then in Greek, reads “to Hygia, freedwoman of Calyx, freedman of the deified Augustus.” The plaque likely marked Hygia's final resting place within a communally funded tomb. In the Latin and Greek text, the name of the deified Augustus is placed first - an unconventional word order which may reveal the dedicator’s priorities. Addressing its audience in both major languages of the Roman Empire, the plaque commemorates a formerly enslaved Greek woman by foregrounding her indirect relationship with Augustus, Rome’s first emperor.