Notes to Inscription for Aurelia Nais

Nais, -idos f.

water-nymph; Naid (a Greek female name). Once her slave name, this is now her cognomen. The dedication preserves her full formal name as a freedwoman. Nais and Phileros were common Greek names during the period between Augustus and Nero (63 BCE to 54 CE).

piscatrix, -tricis f.

she who catches and sells fish (feminine form of piscator).

de preposition + ablative

from; from the area of, near. Her shop was near the Horrea Galbana in the Emporium district.

horreum, -i n.

storehouse, warehouse.

Galba, -ae m.

Galba (a male name, possibly Gallic). This was a cognomen found in the gens Sulpicia; the name of the Emperor Galba (69 CE), a member of the Sulpicius family. These warehouses, built in 100 BCE near the Tiber river, between the southwest slope of the Aventine and Monte Testaccio, were called the Horrea Sulpicia (after their builder, Sergius Sulpicius Galba) or, after their reconstruction by the emperor, the Horrea Galbana. They were depots for goods of all kinds, but especially olive oil and wine.

Phileros, -otos m.

prone to love; full of love (a Greek male name). Phileros had himself been a slave freed by Gaius Aurelius, so his nomen became Aurelius when he was freed. As a freedman, he owned the slave Nais; when he freed her, she received the feminine form of his nomen, Aurelia.

patronus, -i m.

patron; protector, defender. Phileros had been her master when she was a slave but became her patron after he freed her.