This is an distinctive discover documented by researchers from the University of Granada on a tombstone present in Domingo PérezSubulcus was used to consult with a “pig shepherd”, however there was no proof that it was additionally used as a correct nameDue to the font used and by the funerary formulation represented, researchers date it between the tip of the first century and the 2nd century AD
Researchers from the University of Granada (UGR) have documented for the primary time on this planet a brand new correct identify from Roman instances, Subulcus, in an inscription on a funerary stele present in 2020 by probability within the Granada municipality of Domingo Pérez.
This time period seems within the well-known ‘Etymologies of Isidoro of Seville’, the place it signifies that it refers to a “pig herdsman”, that’s, a swineherd, however thus far there was no proof that it was additionally used as a correct identify. .
The subsequent difficulty of the celebrated journal Epigraphica, printed by the University of Sassari (Italy), contains the research carried out by professors from the Department of Ancient History on the UGR Ángel Padilla Arroba and Eva Morales Rodríguez on this Roman inscription.
The discovery of the funerary stele occurred in 2020 and the authors have carried out a whole research of the piece, which is deposited within the Granada Archaeological Museum, the place it’s presently within the technique of being restored.
It dates from the late 1st century and the 2nd century AD.
The inscription is a well-made limestone funerary stele, with a elegant floor, rectangular in form, and a gently rounded prime. It doesn’t current any kind of decorative motif and the again and facet faces solely present indicators of slicing the stone.
With measurements of virtually 70 centimeters excessive and 40 broad, the textual content is distributed alongside 12 strains, 11 of that are preserved in good situation, and the final one solely exhibits the apex of what the 2 might have been. first letters of it. The authors, because of the font used and the funerary formulation represented, date it between the tip of the first century and the 2nd century AD.
The inscription lists the names of 6 folks, free of standing, with household ties between a few of them, wherein solely their identify and the age at which they died are talked about. In the Roman world, freedmen had been former slaves who had been free of their servitude and had grow to be free residents, however nonetheless didn’t have the identical standing or rights as a naive, that’s, somebody who had by no means fallen into slavery, and they might be thought-about without end as former slaves.
The tombstone present in Domingo Pérez will need to have been positioned in a funerary monument of sure dimensions, which was in all probability specified within the final line, which has been misplaced. Of the 6 people that seem in it, 3 are males and three ladies. The three males and one of many ladies belong to the Pomponia gens, a household of commoner origin, whose presence within the south of the peninsula is just not attested till comparatively late.
“Among the names which might be collected on the stela, one stands out particularly, Quintus Pomponius Subulcus -explain Padilla and Morales-. Its particularity and significance lie within the reality that it’s the first documented testimony in the complete Roman world of the time period Subulcus forming a part of the identify day of a person, who, on this case, died at 55 years of age.
This identify is just not included in any of the main repertoires or in the primary epigraphic databases, “so it’s an distinctive discover that enriches the already in depth repertoire of documented Roman names not solely in Hispania, however all through the Empire”, level out the researchers from the UGR.