Latin Inscriptions in Assisi

Inscription from the Garden of Santa Maria Maggiore

This inscription (2nd century BC) is on the outer surface of the architrave of a narrow opening  in the Roman wall that now serves to terrace the garden of Santa Maria Maggiore (see Walk II).

This seems to indicate that passage was granted “by prayer” or on request.

There is a plaster cast of this inscription in the Museo Civico (Exhibit 7).

Inscription from the Roman Cistern, San Rufino

The inscription (late 2nd or early 1st century BC) is over the arch leading to the cistern that now forms the base of the campanile in San Rufino.  It is one of the earliest in Latin to be found in an Umbrian city.  Only the left part of it is now visible in situ, but a plaster cast of the complete inscription can be seen in the Museo Civico (Exhibit 22).

It names six marones:

• Post(umus) Mimesius, son of C(aius);
• T(itus) Mimesius, son of Sert(orius);
• Ner(o) Capidas Rufus, son of C(aius);
• Ner(o) Babrius, son of T(itus);
• C(aius) Capidas, son of T(itus), grandson of C(aius); and
• V(ibius) Volsienus, son of T(itus).

Nero Babrius, son of Titus had the more senior post of uhter  in the Umbrian  inscripion on the cippus from Bastia, which is therefore probably of a slightly later date.  Clearly both Latin and Umbrian were used in public inscriptions in the late 2nd and early  1st centuryies BC.

The rest of the inscription reads:

This records the building (by order of the municipal senate) of the terrace wall that can be seen running under the left side of San Rufino, which apparently originally extended from the arch (fornix) of the cistern to another arch near the circus (which was in modern Piazza Matteotti - see Walk I).

Inscriptions Relating to the Egnatius Family

Three surviving inscriptions in Assisi mention members of the Egnatius family:

• C(aius) Egnati(us), son of Sal(vius), on his urn (late 2nd century BC) in the Museo Civico (Exhibit 2);

• Ner(o) Egnati(us), son of T(itus), on a relief from an urn (1st century BC) that is now embedded in the wall of the Casa Canonica; and

• C(aius) Egnatius, son of C(aius), on his urn (1st century AD) in the Museo Civico (Exhibit 8).

Inscriptions Relating to the Petronius and Tettius Families

Inscription from the Roman Mausoleum

This inscription (early 1st century AD) was found near the Roman mausoleum at the corner of Piazza Matteotti and Via Torrione (see Walk I).

It records that the municipal senate gave a site to Publius Petronius, son of Caius, presumably for the construction of the mausoleum. 

The inscription is now in the Museo Civico, [Exhibit number ???]

Inscription Relating to the Amphitheatre

This fragmentary inscription (early 1st century AD) was found in Piazza Matteotti (see Walk I).  (Another very similar one was found in the cellar of Palazzo Bovi in the same square).  The words in square brackets below have been deduced from the available evidence.

The inscription probably records that Petronia, wife of Galeo completed the construction and/or decoration of the amphitheatre (see Walk I) as the executor of her brother, Caius Petronius Decianus

• Decianus and Petronia are probably the children of Publius Petronius, son of Caius, who was mentioned in the inscription above. 

• The name Galeo was only used by the Tettius family, suggesting that Petronia was married to Galeo Tettius.  They were perhaps the parents or grandparents of Galeo Tettienus Petronianus, who was consul in Rome in 76 AD.

The inscription is now in the Museo Civico, Exhibit 23.

Inscription from the Tetrastyle of Castor and Pollux

The inscription survives on the rear of the base of the tetrastyle (1st century AD) in the forum, which can be visited from Museo Civico.  It reveals that the tetrastyle housed statues of Castor of Pollux and names the donors as Galeo Tettienus Pardalas and Tettiena Galene.  Galeo Tettienus Pardalas was probably a Greek freedman of the Tettius family and Tettiena was probably his wife (or perhaps  his mother).

The donors distributed money at the dedicatory festival:

• 5 denari to each Decurione;

• 3 denari to each of the Seviri Augustale; and

• a denario to each of the plebs.

Other Inscriptions from the Temple  and Forum

Inscription from the Temple

The holes that held bronze lettering across the architrave of the Temple (1st century BC) have made it possible to deduce the names of the brothers who built it at their own expense:

• Cn(aeus) Caesius Tiro; and
  
• T(itus) Caesius Priscus, the sons of Cn(aeus). 
  

They were members of the important Caesii family that also features in a number of other inscriptions in the region.  This inscription describes them as quattuorviri quinquennali.

Inscription in the Pavement of the Forum

The original paving of the forum can be visited from Museo Civico.  The base of the  tetrastyle mentioned above partially covers a series of holes left by the bronze letters that recorded the names of the magistrates who were in office in the 1st century BC, when the forum was paved . 

The surviving names have been deduced to be the quattuorviri iure dicundo:

• C(aius) Caetronius, son of C(aius); and

• C(aius) Attius Ruf(ius), son of C(aius);
  

and two of the quinqueviri:

• T(itus) Olius Gargenna, son of C(aius); and
  

• L(ucius) Vallius B....., son of C(aius).

Inscription on the Terrace below the Temple

This terrace is visited from Museo Civico.  A long inscription to the right of the stairs that led to the pronaus originally referred to the quattuorviri iure dicundo responsible for building or restoration of this part of the complex, but their names have been lost. 

The lower part of the inscription names the quinqueviri who were in office when the work was done, probably in the 1st century AD:

• C(aius) Babrius Chilo, son of C(aius);
  
• C(aius) Vestinius Capito, son of C(aius); 
• C(aius) Vallius, son of C(aius); 
• L(ucius) Visellius, son of L(ucius); and 
• Cn(aeus) Vestinius, son of Cn(aeus).
  

The final part of the inscription, which is of a later date, records the fact that C(aius) Attius Clarus, son of T(itus) paid for the stucco decoration of the wall.

Publius Decimius Eros Merula

An inscription (1st century AD) in the Museo Civico [Exhibit ???], which is on what was probably the base of a statue, records the largesse of this accomplished freedman:

This translates: Publius Decimius Eros Merula, formerly a slave of Publius, clinical physician, ophthalmic surgeon, one of the Seviri Augustale, paid

• 50,000 sesterces for his freedom;

• 2,000 sesterces to the municipal treasury on his election to public office;

• 30,000 sesterces towards the statues placed in the Temple of Hercules; and
  

• 37,000 sesterces to the municipal treasury for the paving of the highways.

The day before he died he bequeathed an estate of 500,000 sesterces.