INHABITANTS

The Inhabitants section includes funerary epigraphs specially to freedmen, ex freed slaves, coming especially from Alba Fucens and Marruvium territory (not only from S. Benedetto, but also from Pescina, Lecce dei Marsi and Ortona).

The high number of writing errors found in many  inscriptions is a sign of poor literacy, both for the clients and craftsmen executors: in some cases one might even suspect that the stonemason was copying mechanically the model without understanding it, being he himself illiterate.

Normally the dedicator indicates the relationship that binds him to deceased, mostly with the addition of a second epithet stereotypes crystallized in use (‘very dear’, ‘very sweet’) of a very inflated recognition of merit, often specifying the age of the deceased at the time of death or, in in the case of spouses, the length of the married life.

It is not unusual to find precise indications about who will be able to use the grave among the descendants, but who is also found specifies’ this sepulchral monument will not pass to the heiress, betraying concern of the freedman who, forced to have his former master as heir, he wants avoid that he can also dispose of his tomb and introduce strangers into it.