To the Spirits of the Dead
of Annia Isias, daughter of Publius,
who lived sixteen years, two months, seventeen days.
Publius Cornelius Mamertinus, freedman of Publius,
a most unfortunate husband, made this
for his sweet, faithful, and pious wife
and for himself, her husband.
Annia Isias was so young—only 16 years old—when she passed away. Mamertinus, her husband, grieved her. He probably placed this marble container, which housed her cremated remains, into one of the many niches lining the wall of a communal tomb at Rome. Other mourners whose loved ones were buried in the same tomb may have paused to read this Latin epigraph and sensed his sorrow.
Annia Isias was probably born with free legal status. Mamertinus identifies himself as a freedman, a formerly enslaved man. The families of enslaved people in Roman society were not legally recognized; with freedom came the legal right to have a family. Mamertinus’s lament for his young wife and stated intention to be buried in the same urn gains further poignancy: he mourns Annia Isias’s death as well as the marriage his freed status allowed him to formalize.
Caring for the Dead at the Harvard Art Museums
