http://www.currentepigraphy.org/2008/02/13/cambridge-epigraphic-saturday-lineup/ ISSN 1754-0909 (Online) Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:20:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.10 http://www.currentepigraphy.org/2008/02/13/cambridge-epigraphic-saturday-lineup/#comment-4087 Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:51:46 +0000 http://www.currentepigraphy.org/2008/02/13/cambridge-epigraphic-saturday-lineup/#comment-4087 [...] Henrik Mouritsen has sent me a summary of his paper given at the Cambridge Epigraphy Day in February, which I post below: Henrik Mouritsen (King’s College London) discussed the possibility of quantifying Roman manumission using epigraphic evidence. While acknowledging that most inscriptions are of little help in establishing hard statistics in this area, he drew attention to two types of document which may provide more reliable information. The first are the epitaphs of the familial columbaria from the early empire, esp. those of the Statilii and the Volusii, where the ratio of slave to freed suggests a very high manumission rate in elite households. The second type is the municipal alba and particularly CIL X 1403 from Herculaneum. This inscription, long believed to contain the names of the Augustales, is unique in its scale. Even a cautious reconstruction of the fragments entails a total of around a thousand names, the large majority being those of local freedmen, which–given the overall size of Herculaneum’s population–would suggest that a substantial proportion of the free adult males were former slaves. [...] […] Henrik Mouritsen has sent me a summary of his paper given at the Cambridge Epigraphy Day in February, which I post below: Henrik Mouritsen (King’s College London) discussed the possibility of quantifying Roman manumission using epigraphic evidence. While acknowledging that most inscriptions are of little help in establishing hard statistics in this area, he drew attention to two types of document which may provide more reliable information. The first are the epitaphs of the familial columbaria from the early empire, esp. those of the Statilii and the Volusii, where the ratio of slave to freed suggests a very high manumission rate in elite households. The second type is the municipal alba and particularly CIL X 1403 from Herculaneum. This inscription, long believed to contain the names of the Augustales, is unique in its scale. Even a cautious reconstruction of the fragments entails a total of around a thousand names, the large majority being those of local freedmen, which–given the overall size of Herculaneum’s population–would suggest that a substantial proportion of the free adult males were former slaves. […]

]]> http://www.currentepigraphy.org/2008/02/13/cambridge-epigraphic-saturday-lineup/#comment-3382 Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:31:43 +0000 http://www.currentepigraphy.org/2008/02/13/cambridge-epigraphic-saturday-lineup/#comment-3382 The Saturday was a very successful day (as Joyce Reynolds' events always are). A handful of people have agreed to post summaries of most of the papers, so we should be seeing them appearing over the next couple of days. The Saturday was a very successful day (as Joyce Reynolds’ events always are). A handful of people have agreed to post summaries of most of the papers, so we should be seeing them appearing over the next couple of days.

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