DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0502
428
POMPEII
All such inscriptions, however, are surpassed in ludicrous incon-
gruity with the purpose of the monument by the following
advertisement regarding a stray horse: Equa siquei aberavit
cum semuncis honerata a. d. VII Kai. Septembres (corrected into
Decembres\ convenito Q. Deciu\m\ Q. I. Hilarum ... L. I. .. .
chionem, citrapontem Samifundo Mamiano, — ‘If anybody lost
a mare with a small pack-saddle, November 25, let him come and
see Quintus Decius Hilarus, freedman of Quintus Decius, or . . .
(the name is illegible), freedman of Lucius, on the estate of the
Mamii, this side of the bridge over the Sarno.’ The two freed-
men were very likely in partnership, working a farm belonging
to the family, one representative of which we have already met,
Mamia the priestess (p. 402).
A more serious desecration of burial places, after offerings to
the dead ceased to be made by relatives, or a family became
extinct, was probably not uncommon. Different families had
different gods, and those of one household were quite inde-
pendent of those of another. Ordinarily a man had no reason
to fear or respect the gods of his neighbor; notwithstanding
the associations of worship connected with tombs, the general
feeling toward them was very different from that manifested
toward temples, where local divinities or the great gods were
worshipped. The most stringent regulations of the emperors
could not prevent the ransacking of the tombs about Rome for
objects of value, and the removal of their materials of construc-
tion for building purposes. The superstructure of two of the
monuments near the Herculaneum Gate had disappeared appar-
ently before the destruction of the city, and of the tomb of
Porcius only the core remained.
POMPEII
All such inscriptions, however, are surpassed in ludicrous incon-
gruity with the purpose of the monument by the following
advertisement regarding a stray horse: Equa siquei aberavit
cum semuncis honerata a. d. VII Kai. Septembres (corrected into
Decembres\ convenito Q. Deciu\m\ Q. I. Hilarum ... L. I. .. .
chionem, citrapontem Samifundo Mamiano, — ‘If anybody lost
a mare with a small pack-saddle, November 25, let him come and
see Quintus Decius Hilarus, freedman of Quintus Decius, or . . .
(the name is illegible), freedman of Lucius, on the estate of the
Mamii, this side of the bridge over the Sarno.’ The two freed-
men were very likely in partnership, working a farm belonging
to the family, one representative of which we have already met,
Mamia the priestess (p. 402).
A more serious desecration of burial places, after offerings to
the dead ceased to be made by relatives, or a family became
extinct, was probably not uncommon. Different families had
different gods, and those of one household were quite inde-
pendent of those of another. Ordinarily a man had no reason
to fear or respect the gods of his neighbor; notwithstanding
the associations of worship connected with tombs, the general
feeling toward them was very different from that manifested
toward temples, where local divinities or the great gods were
worshipped. The most stringent regulations of the emperors
could not prevent the ransacking of the tombs about Rome for
objects of value, and the removal of their materials of construc-
tion for building purposes. The superstructure of two of the
monuments near the Herculaneum Gate had disappeared appar-
ently before the destruction of the city, and of the tomb of
Porcius only the core remained.