Notes to Inscriptions for Claudia Olympias

CIL 6.15520: parentheses enclose the missing letters supplied by editors; brackets enclose letters omitted in typical funerary abbreviations (see below). This Olympias died at an early age. Her monument, set up by her grieving mother, is inscribed as a tomb for the family (i.e., for the mother's household), listed as: 10 year old Olympias, the mother, the mother's husband, the mother's freedpersons and their offspring. Because of the lacuna it is unclear whether [Ac]hilleo's full name includes the name Tiberius; if not, he may be a second husband and not the father of Claudia Tiberii filia Olympias, who may be the younger sister of the Olympias in the earlier inscriptions.

(Dis) M[anibus]
(Clau)DIAE TI[berii] F[iliae] OLYMPIADI
(v)IXIT ANNIS X (mensibus) XI D[iebus] XXV
SERVAN(d)A MATER (infeli)CISSMA F(e)CIT ET SIBI
ET (... Ac)HILLEO CONIUGI SUO (et libertis li)BERTABUSQUE (posterisqu)E EORUM.





Olympias, -adis f. an elegant Greek name associated with Mount Olympos, it was the name of Alexander the Great's fearsome mother. The word means an Olympiad, the 4-year period between Olympic games which the Greeks used to mark dates.

pientissimus, -a, -um; a superlative adjective formed from piens, a rare form of pius found in inscriptions
dutiful; conscientious; affectionate; pious.

patrona, -ae f.
protectress, patroness. After manumission, the former owner of a slave automatically became the legal patron of the freed slave.

Di Manes, m. pl.
the spirits of the dead, the divine spirits. This phrase in the dative case is regularly found at the head of funerary inscriptions from the end of the 1st century BCE through the 2nd century CE.

Eutychus, -i m.: a man's name derived from the Greek eu + tyche = good fortune.

coniunx, -is, m., f.
one who is united in marriage; spouse, wife; husband. Coniugi is the indirect object of the funerary formula fecit hoc monumentum, which is often left uncarved, perhaps for economic or practical reasons -- the cost of the carving or available space on the stone.


Close this window after each use.