Gnome, es, f.
a Greek noun meaning a woman of good judgment. Her slave name indicates her origin in Greece.

Pieris, -idos f.
a Greek patronymic meaning daughter of Pieria, an area in southwest Macedonia that was the traditional haunt of the Muses. The correct genitive form is Pieridos. She was herself either a slave or a freedwoman.

ancilla, -ae f.
maid servant, handmaid, female slave.

effero, -ferre, extuli, elatus
take away, carry off; used here as a metaphor for death.

V [quintum]: this would have been the 28th of January. The Roman formula for naming a day and month was to count backwards (ante diem + the Roman numeral as an ordinal number), inclusively, to the target date from the following monthly marker (Kalendae, Nones, Idus).

K: the Kalends, which were sacred to Juno, occurred on the first day of each month. They marked the day on which interest was due on loans. For information on Roman calendars, see history and perpetual calendar .

XIII: Augustus held his 13th consulship in 2 BCE (see consular lists)

co[n]s[ulibus]: the Roman practice for dating a year was to either give the number of the year ab urbe condita (for 2 BCE it would be 752 AUC) or to give the names of the two consuls for that year, as here.

Close this window after each use.