THE TOMB OF A ROMAN BAKER
This is the tomb of Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces. The inscription
on the tomb (just under the bottom row of circles) reads: EST HOC
MONUMENTUM MARCEI1 VERGILEI1 EURYSACIS PISTORIS,
REDEMPTORIS, APPARET (This is the tomb of Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces, a
baker, contractor, he serves (as some minor official). Marcus' full
name indicates that he was a freed slave: a freedman. As a slave,
his name would have simply been 'Eurysaces' (a Greek name), but when he
was manumitted by his master, he received both the praenomen (like
our first name) and nomen (like our surname) of his master and kept
his slave name as a cognomen (no modern equivalent), the third name
of a Roman citizen (freedmen became citizens on manumission). Usually,
the relationship between master and slave survived manumission. The
new freedman became a client of his former master, now his patron.
Eurysaces must have been a very successful baker to have afforded such
an imposing funeral monument. Perhaps during his life he also enjoyed
considerable financial help from his patron.
Outside of the inscription and the scenes of various aspects of baking
in bas relief at the top, the rest of the monument is rather strange.
No one is sure what the hollow circles in the middle and the piers at the
bottom represent and whether they have anything to do with baking.
Note
1. For Latin students in this class, in the period in which
this inscription was made (late republic), the diphthong ei was
pronounced the same as a long i, so ei and long i are
commonly used interchangeably. The alternate and more familiar spelling
would have been Marci Vergili. Eurysacis is a third
declension genitive singular, as are pistoris and redemptoris.
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