Henrik Mouritsen

Freedmen and Decurions: Epitaphs and Social History in Imperial Italy *

The article investigates the social profile of Roman funerary epigraphy, focusing on Ostia and Pompeii, and reconsiders the predominant role of freedmen in this material. Comparing the epigraphic behaviour of decurions and freedmen, it concludes that the ‘epigraphic habit’ was not uniformly adopted throughout Roman society; different classes used inscriptions in different ways and for different purposes. The epitaphs do not therefore reflect the overall composition of the Roman population as much as the particular concerns and aspirations of individual social groups and categories within it.