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So it turns out that I was only supposed to translate a tiny fraction of that grammar stuff about poetic meter; I just didn’t find out in time, because I do my homework early, and the prof sends out notes about these things late, expecting all of us to put homework off until the last possible minute. Which...is probably accurate for most of the class, but argh.
Moving on, we’re now at the point of translating...epitaphs! Mostly epitaphs for generals and the like, I expect, as you’re not likely to get high-quality engraving that lasts for millennia on a shoe-maker’s tomb. Though we do get some middle-class types here, too; most of the evidence for Invisible Romans, an interesting book about the non-elite Romans of the classical era, comes from such epitaphs.
1. Lucius Cornelius Scipio, son of Gnaius
Cornelius Lucius Scipio the Bearded was begat by his father Gnaius; a strong and wise man whose body was equal to his virtue; a consul, censor, aedile, who was among you; he seized [this] from Taurasia, Samnius, Cisauna; he conquered all of Lucauna and took hostages.
2. Lucius Cornelius Lucius, son of Scipio
Aedile, consul, censor. How the majority of Romans agree on this one man! Lucius came from the best of good men, Scipio. He was here with us, the sons of Barbatus, consul and aedile and censor. He seized [this] here from Corsican and the Alerian city, and gave a temple deservedly to Tempests.*
3. Publius Cornelius Scipio
You who reached the remarkable apex of Jupiter’s priest,** your death completed it as all brief things do: honor, fame, and virtue, glory and talent. If it had been permitted to you to enjoy a long life, you easily would have surpassed the glory of your ancestors with your deeds. Therefore the Earth receives you willingly in her lap, Scipio Publius Cornelius, descended from Publius.
4. Lucius Cornelius Gnaius, son of Gnaius, grandson of Scipio
He possessed great wisdom, many virtues, and a short life, whom this tomb possesses. Whose life lacked no offices, no honor, he rests here, who was never surpassed in virtue, born twenty years ago [and now] delivered to this place here. May you not seek honor less than the man delivered here.
5. Gnaius Cornelius Scipio Hispanus, son of Gnaius
Gnaius Cornelius Scipio Hispanus, son of Gnaius, praetor, aedile, curate, general of 43,008 men, [something], a man of sacred [something]. I accumulated virtues in the custom of my ancestors, I begat progeny, I sought the deeds of my father. I obtained the praise of my ancestors, so that they rejoiced among themselves that I was created; honor made my lineage famous.
6. Gaius Poplicius Lucius son of Bibulus
To Gaius Poplicius Lucius, son of Bibulus, aedile, on account of his many virtues and honors, by the order of the senate in consultation with the people, this place is given to a monument by which he himself and his descendants may be publicly buried.***
7. Marcus Caecilius
This monument is made for Marcus Caecilius. Vistors, you are welcome to rest at my benches. Proceed well and be well, and sleep without cares.
8. Marcus Virgelus Eurysax
This is the monument of Marcus Virgelus Eurysax, a miller-farmer, and gains [...]. [This repeats three times with slight spelling variations.]
9. Atistia
Atistia was my wife. She was the best woman, whose remains of her body, which are left, are in this breadbasket.^
10. Maecus Lucius Philotimus
Young man, you hastened so greatly that the little tomb asks you that you next look at yourself so that you may read what is written: here rest the bones of Maecus Lucius Philotimus, the goldsmith; I wished, not knowing, that my descendants be well: Lucius Macius Lucius, freedman; Mancha, son of Mancha; Rutilia Rutilia Hethaera, freedwoman; Maecia, daughter of Lucius.
11. Olus Granus
I ask, visitors, that you rest touching this stone, while what was mandated by him whose shadow touches [you] is displayed. I belong to a chaste and frugal man of great fidelity; the bones of the herald Olus Granus have been laid here; he was such a man that he wished, unknowing, that he be well: Aulus Granius, freedman of Marcus Stabilius, herald.
12. Claudia
Vistors, what I say is very brief: stand here and read through. This is the unbeautiful tomb of a beautiful woman. Her parents gave her the name of Claudia. She loved her husband with her heart. She created two children; one of them is left on the earth, the other is located beneath the earth. She had charming speech, and a perfect gait. She preserved her home, she made wool. I have spoken. You may go.
13. Caius Atelius Euhodus
Visitors, rest and look to the left-hand mound here, where the bones of a good man are stored by his compassionate friends. Traveller, I ask that you not do anything bad to the monument of a poor man, Caius Atelius Euhodus, freedman of Serranus, pearl-dealer, rests in this monument on the sacred road. Traveller, take care that no one gouges out anything from this testament, nor that it be permitted to be joined unless with those freedmen by whom this testament given and attributed.
14. Eucharis Licenia, freedwoman
A erudite maiden instructed in all arts lived 14 years. Alas for the wandering eye of the house of death; delay your path and read our inscription, which the love of parents gave to their daughter when they collected her mortal remains. Here she flourished with the green age of the arts, and achieved the glory with eternal growth. My hour of sad death hurried and remaining life denied the spirit. I was taught and learned almost by the hand the Muses, I who decorated the games of the nobility with the only choir, and first appeared before the people in the Greek theater. The unkind Parcae deposited the ashes of our body in this tomb with song. Study, attention to my patron, love, praise, and value are silent with the body destroyed, and they hush with death. As daughter I leave weeping for my father, and I have gone before my mother, after the day of death. He had twice seven birthdays with me. They are held by the shadows of Dis in an eternal home. I ask that when you leave this earth you speak lightly for me.
15. The daughter of Quinctus Rancus^^
This is the tomb of the daughter of Quinctus Rancus, freedman of Quinctus Protus, who by serious fate the cruel Parcae set as the end of life, who unworthily had scarcely twice ten years since her birth, for when she [something] the seed of liberty [something] by the help of her patron and [something] many appropriate and inappropriate things, hostile death seized her from her parents. Now always in the highest light [something] the tears for the daughter [something] that such a daughter would be snatched from me, her father and her true-born mother I pray and beg [something] to pour out sad tears with crying, if in a joyful life there was a pleasure of a husband and all your friends. Now since [something] for which reason your father has erected this monument. This will be a house for your child and you as a wife [something] where always equally for eternity [something].
16. Prima Pompaia
Here are the bones of Prima Pompaia. Fortune promises many things to many people, [who] are present at the memorial. Live in days and hours, for nothing is one’s own. Salvius and Heros give [this monument].
17. If anyone is good to join our sorrow, stand here lest anyone shed a few tears. What joy a girl tended for sweet love is unhappy here, who was the only one, since a short time was allowed to this Nymph by the fates, and now she is seized from the loving care of her own home. All grace and a praised figure were for her; now the gentle shadows are on her small bones and ashes.
18. Publius Critonius Publius, son of Polius
My mother took care of this monument [being built], who loved me deeply, while I lie here too early. Be well, be well.
19. Cupieinna Turtulla, daughter of Lucius
Cupieinna Turtulla, daughter of Lucius, was the last of her [family], whose final remains wait here.
20. Helena Antistiana
The bones of my sister, Helena Antistiana, sleep here.
21. Quintus Cornelius Quintus Publius, freedman of Diphilus, and Cornelia, freedwoman of Quintus
The ladies sleep here, and my freedmen, and they are given to freedom in this place, and to all my [family?].
22. ? son of Lucius Offellius Gnaius son of Gnaius, took care of making [living men?] for his ancestors.
23. Helvia Prima
You passerby, who walking is moved from your easy mind by the appearance of our remains, if you ask who I am, in ashes and burnt coals, before the sad descent I was Helvia Prima. I have enjoyed my spouse Cadmus Scraeteius, and we lived in harmony with equal talent. Now I am given to Dis, waiting through the long eternity, led away from the funeral fire and Stygian water.
24. Plotia Prune
This woman was called Plotia Prune, freedwoman of Lucius and Fufia; the maid^^^ lies here. How great this woman was towards her patron, patroness, parent, spouse, this monument indicates. Be well, be safe.
25. Sempronia Moschis
Here lies the pious, frugal, chaste, modest Sempronia Moschis, on account of which merits her grace is reported by her spouse.
26. Epitaphs of Poets
If righteousness would pierce the immortals to mourn for mortals, the divine Camenae& would weep for the poet Naevius. And thus afterward he would be handed over to the treasure horde of Orcus; they have forgotten to speak in the Latin tongue in Rome.
Look, citizens, at the form of the image of old Ennius; he composed the greatest deeds of your fathers. May no one adorn me with tears or delay the funerary rites with mourning. Why? May you, living, wish out loud for the man.
After Plautus achieved death, Comedy mourned, Stage was deserted, then Laughter, Games, and Jokes, and innumerable numbers, all together at once cried.
Young man, although you hurry, this rock asks you that you pay attention and then read what is written. Here lie the bones of the poet Pacuvus Marcus. I wished this not knowing you would be. Be well.
27. Marcus Licinius Faustus &&
It is not possible to say or to speak thus who is dead in this tomb, at Rhodes in the house of Marcus Licinius Faustus. It would be possible to neither say nor speak who is dead thus, so that the dead [man] is received to neither gods nor men, thus at Rhodes in the house of Marcus Licinius. Let her be received and be just as well as that dead man who is in this tomb, the father at Divine Rhodes. I tell you to always be at rest, Marcus Licinius Faustus, and so does Marcus Hedium Antiphonem, and Caius Pompillius Apollonius, and Vernonia Hermiona, and Sergia Glycinna.
---
* That is, the gods of weather. Though frankly I’m not sure on the cases of a lot of the words in this one, so things being taken from or to or with may, in some cases, actually be direct objects. Or vice versa. Darn disappearing final -m.
** If I’m parsing this right, this means essentially “You became a priest of Jupiter, which is the highest religious office” or the like.
*** Buried or introduced. Not actually sure. Either way, it’s a gravestone, so I guess it amounts to the same thing?
^ This has got to be a mistranslation on my part, but by god, “breadbasket” and “bread-seller” are my options for the word, and I think locating the remains inside the latter would be an even graver mistake.
^^ We’re moving into areas where I just can’t work out what the hell is going on with a lot of the words. Rather than make something utterly bastardized by guessing, I’m starting to just gloss over anything I’m deeply uncertain on.
^^^ This is the same term used for Pardalisca (and Casina) back in that play. I usually see it used for slave women, especially those who worked inside the house rather than on a farm, but as it’s referring to a freedwoman here it presumably refers to her previous occupation. (Or her occupation even after being freed; there was often some contract involved in being freed that required more years of service or the like.)
& One of the many, many ways to refer to the muses.
&& Not only is this one given no punctuation by the editors, but it uses both feminine and masculine endings to refer to the dead person, and it’s not clear which lines go with which. So...yeah.
Moving on, we’re now at the point of translating...epitaphs! Mostly epitaphs for generals and the like, I expect, as you’re not likely to get high-quality engraving that lasts for millennia on a shoe-maker’s tomb. Though we do get some middle-class types here, too; most of the evidence for Invisible Romans, an interesting book about the non-elite Romans of the classical era, comes from such epitaphs.
1. Lucius Cornelius Scipio, son of Gnaius
Cornelius Lucius Scipio the Bearded was begat by his father Gnaius; a strong and wise man whose body was equal to his virtue; a consul, censor, aedile, who was among you; he seized [this] from Taurasia, Samnius, Cisauna; he conquered all of Lucauna and took hostages.
2. Lucius Cornelius Lucius, son of Scipio
Aedile, consul, censor. How the majority of Romans agree on this one man! Lucius came from the best of good men, Scipio. He was here with us, the sons of Barbatus, consul and aedile and censor. He seized [this] here from Corsican and the Alerian city, and gave a temple deservedly to Tempests.*
3. Publius Cornelius Scipio
You who reached the remarkable apex of Jupiter’s priest,** your death completed it as all brief things do: honor, fame, and virtue, glory and talent. If it had been permitted to you to enjoy a long life, you easily would have surpassed the glory of your ancestors with your deeds. Therefore the Earth receives you willingly in her lap, Scipio Publius Cornelius, descended from Publius.
4. Lucius Cornelius Gnaius, son of Gnaius, grandson of Scipio
He possessed great wisdom, many virtues, and a short life, whom this tomb possesses. Whose life lacked no offices, no honor, he rests here, who was never surpassed in virtue, born twenty years ago [and now] delivered to this place here. May you not seek honor less than the man delivered here.
5. Gnaius Cornelius Scipio Hispanus, son of Gnaius
Gnaius Cornelius Scipio Hispanus, son of Gnaius, praetor, aedile, curate, general of 43,008 men, [something], a man of sacred [something]. I accumulated virtues in the custom of my ancestors, I begat progeny, I sought the deeds of my father. I obtained the praise of my ancestors, so that they rejoiced among themselves that I was created; honor made my lineage famous.
6. Gaius Poplicius Lucius son of Bibulus
To Gaius Poplicius Lucius, son of Bibulus, aedile, on account of his many virtues and honors, by the order of the senate in consultation with the people, this place is given to a monument by which he himself and his descendants may be publicly buried.***
7. Marcus Caecilius
This monument is made for Marcus Caecilius. Vistors, you are welcome to rest at my benches. Proceed well and be well, and sleep without cares.
8. Marcus Virgelus Eurysax
This is the monument of Marcus Virgelus Eurysax, a miller-farmer, and gains [...]. [This repeats three times with slight spelling variations.]
9. Atistia
Atistia was my wife. She was the best woman, whose remains of her body, which are left, are in this breadbasket.^
10. Maecus Lucius Philotimus
Young man, you hastened so greatly that the little tomb asks you that you next look at yourself so that you may read what is written: here rest the bones of Maecus Lucius Philotimus, the goldsmith; I wished, not knowing, that my descendants be well: Lucius Macius Lucius, freedman; Mancha, son of Mancha; Rutilia Rutilia Hethaera, freedwoman; Maecia, daughter of Lucius.
11. Olus Granus
I ask, visitors, that you rest touching this stone, while what was mandated by him whose shadow touches [you] is displayed. I belong to a chaste and frugal man of great fidelity; the bones of the herald Olus Granus have been laid here; he was such a man that he wished, unknowing, that he be well: Aulus Granius, freedman of Marcus Stabilius, herald.
12. Claudia
Vistors, what I say is very brief: stand here and read through. This is the unbeautiful tomb of a beautiful woman. Her parents gave her the name of Claudia. She loved her husband with her heart. She created two children; one of them is left on the earth, the other is located beneath the earth. She had charming speech, and a perfect gait. She preserved her home, she made wool. I have spoken. You may go.
13. Caius Atelius Euhodus
Visitors, rest and look to the left-hand mound here, where the bones of a good man are stored by his compassionate friends. Traveller, I ask that you not do anything bad to the monument of a poor man, Caius Atelius Euhodus, freedman of Serranus, pearl-dealer, rests in this monument on the sacred road. Traveller, take care that no one gouges out anything from this testament, nor that it be permitted to be joined unless with those freedmen by whom this testament given and attributed.
14. Eucharis Licenia, freedwoman
A erudite maiden instructed in all arts lived 14 years. Alas for the wandering eye of the house of death; delay your path and read our inscription, which the love of parents gave to their daughter when they collected her mortal remains. Here she flourished with the green age of the arts, and achieved the glory with eternal growth. My hour of sad death hurried and remaining life denied the spirit. I was taught and learned almost by the hand the Muses, I who decorated the games of the nobility with the only choir, and first appeared before the people in the Greek theater. The unkind Parcae deposited the ashes of our body in this tomb with song. Study, attention to my patron, love, praise, and value are silent with the body destroyed, and they hush with death. As daughter I leave weeping for my father, and I have gone before my mother, after the day of death. He had twice seven birthdays with me. They are held by the shadows of Dis in an eternal home. I ask that when you leave this earth you speak lightly for me.
15. The daughter of Quinctus Rancus^^
This is the tomb of the daughter of Quinctus Rancus, freedman of Quinctus Protus, who by serious fate the cruel Parcae set as the end of life, who unworthily had scarcely twice ten years since her birth, for when she [something] the seed of liberty [something] by the help of her patron and [something] many appropriate and inappropriate things, hostile death seized her from her parents. Now always in the highest light [something] the tears for the daughter [something] that such a daughter would be snatched from me, her father and her true-born mother I pray and beg [something] to pour out sad tears with crying, if in a joyful life there was a pleasure of a husband and all your friends. Now since [something] for which reason your father has erected this monument. This will be a house for your child and you as a wife [something] where always equally for eternity [something].
16. Prima Pompaia
Here are the bones of Prima Pompaia. Fortune promises many things to many people, [who] are present at the memorial. Live in days and hours, for nothing is one’s own. Salvius and Heros give [this monument].
17. If anyone is good to join our sorrow, stand here lest anyone shed a few tears. What joy a girl tended for sweet love is unhappy here, who was the only one, since a short time was allowed to this Nymph by the fates, and now she is seized from the loving care of her own home. All grace and a praised figure were for her; now the gentle shadows are on her small bones and ashes.
18. Publius Critonius Publius, son of Polius
My mother took care of this monument [being built], who loved me deeply, while I lie here too early. Be well, be well.
19. Cupieinna Turtulla, daughter of Lucius
Cupieinna Turtulla, daughter of Lucius, was the last of her [family], whose final remains wait here.
20. Helena Antistiana
The bones of my sister, Helena Antistiana, sleep here.
21. Quintus Cornelius Quintus Publius, freedman of Diphilus, and Cornelia, freedwoman of Quintus
The ladies sleep here, and my freedmen, and they are given to freedom in this place, and to all my [family?].
22. ? son of Lucius Offellius Gnaius son of Gnaius, took care of making [living men?] for his ancestors.
23. Helvia Prima
You passerby, who walking is moved from your easy mind by the appearance of our remains, if you ask who I am, in ashes and burnt coals, before the sad descent I was Helvia Prima. I have enjoyed my spouse Cadmus Scraeteius, and we lived in harmony with equal talent. Now I am given to Dis, waiting through the long eternity, led away from the funeral fire and Stygian water.
24. Plotia Prune
This woman was called Plotia Prune, freedwoman of Lucius and Fufia; the maid^^^ lies here. How great this woman was towards her patron, patroness, parent, spouse, this monument indicates. Be well, be safe.
25. Sempronia Moschis
Here lies the pious, frugal, chaste, modest Sempronia Moschis, on account of which merits her grace is reported by her spouse.
26. Epitaphs of Poets
If righteousness would pierce the immortals to mourn for mortals, the divine Camenae& would weep for the poet Naevius. And thus afterward he would be handed over to the treasure horde of Orcus; they have forgotten to speak in the Latin tongue in Rome.
Look, citizens, at the form of the image of old Ennius; he composed the greatest deeds of your fathers. May no one adorn me with tears or delay the funerary rites with mourning. Why? May you, living, wish out loud for the man.
After Plautus achieved death, Comedy mourned, Stage was deserted, then Laughter, Games, and Jokes, and innumerable numbers, all together at once cried.
Young man, although you hurry, this rock asks you that you pay attention and then read what is written. Here lie the bones of the poet Pacuvus Marcus. I wished this not knowing you would be. Be well.
27. Marcus Licinius Faustus &&
It is not possible to say or to speak thus who is dead in this tomb, at Rhodes in the house of Marcus Licinius Faustus. It would be possible to neither say nor speak who is dead thus, so that the dead [man] is received to neither gods nor men, thus at Rhodes in the house of Marcus Licinius. Let her be received and be just as well as that dead man who is in this tomb, the father at Divine Rhodes. I tell you to always be at rest, Marcus Licinius Faustus, and so does Marcus Hedium Antiphonem, and Caius Pompillius Apollonius, and Vernonia Hermiona, and Sergia Glycinna.
---
* That is, the gods of weather. Though frankly I’m not sure on the cases of a lot of the words in this one, so things being taken from or to or with may, in some cases, actually be direct objects. Or vice versa. Darn disappearing final -m.
** If I’m parsing this right, this means essentially “You became a priest of Jupiter, which is the highest religious office” or the like.
*** Buried or introduced. Not actually sure. Either way, it’s a gravestone, so I guess it amounts to the same thing?
^ This has got to be a mistranslation on my part, but by god, “breadbasket” and “bread-seller” are my options for the word, and I think locating the remains inside the latter would be an even graver mistake.
^^ We’re moving into areas where I just can’t work out what the hell is going on with a lot of the words. Rather than make something utterly bastardized by guessing, I’m starting to just gloss over anything I’m deeply uncertain on.
^^^ This is the same term used for Pardalisca (and Casina) back in that play. I usually see it used for slave women, especially those who worked inside the house rather than on a farm, but as it’s referring to a freedwoman here it presumably refers to her previous occupation. (Or her occupation even after being freed; there was often some contract involved in being freed that required more years of service or the like.)
& One of the many, many ways to refer to the muses.
&& Not only is this one given no punctuation by the editors, but it uses both feminine and masculine endings to refer to the dead person, and it’s not clear which lines go with which. So...yeah.