Notes to the Funerary Inscription for Cornelia Sabina

His full official name, which appears in his honorary inscription awarded by the town of Corfinium, was constituted by his filiation, his ancestors three generations prior, and his honorary agnomina as follows:
Ser(vius) Cornelius Ser(vi) f(ilius) P(ubli) nep(os) P(ubli) pronepos P(ubli) abnepos Dolabella Metilianus Pompeius Marcellus.

consul suffectus: if the regular consul (consul ordinarius) died in office or was otherwise unable to fulfill the duties of office, he was replaced by an appointive consul suffectus until the year ended.

Di Manes, m. pl.

the collective spirits of the dead, the divine spirits; this phrase is in the dative case, indicating the object of the dedication. The words or their abbreviation are commonly found at the head of funerary inscriptions from the end of the 1st century BCE through the 2nd century CE.

SER:

This is the standard abbreviation for Servius, a recurring praenomen of the elder son in the Dolabella family. Roman women did not have praenomina until the imperial period, when it became common for them to use a threefold name (see Names of Women). Adopting the feminine form of her patron's praenomen, the name of the deceased freedwoman is Servia Cornelia Sabina.

Cornelia, -ae f.

Cornelia. The case is either the dative or the genitive after Dis Manibus. Upon manumission freedpersons adopted the masculine or feminine form of their master's nomen before their slave cognomen.

liberta/us -ae/-i f/m.

freedwoman/man. At some point before her death the family or Metilianus himself freed Sabina in recognition of her good services.

Dolabella:

A plebian family, a prominent branch of the patrician gens Cornelia during the 1st century BCE-CE. Metilianus seems to have been the last consul in a long line of Dolabella statesmen and generals who first appeared in the 3rd century BCE.

METIL{L}IANVS:

This is his cognomen, the name used by family and friends that distinguished him from other males in his family. The gens Metilia is always written with a single L, as is Metilianus’s name elsewhere (CIL 9.3152-54). His family followed the trend (cf. his father Petronianus) that appeared in the late 1st century of giving their elder son a second cognomen formed by adding -anus to the mother's nomen gentilicium (cf. Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus, whose mother was Vespasia). Two honorary agnomina (Pompeius Marcellus) were added to Metilianus's name, awarded by the municipium of Corfinium for his patronage.

nutrix, -icis f.

a child's nurse; a wet-nurse. Usually a slave or freedwoman, the nurse nurtures the children of the family from birth by bathing, feeding, clothing, training and entertaining them. There are instances in myth and history of close lifelong bonding between nurse and child.

mammula -ae f. diminutive of mamma

little mamma; foster-mother; little breast or teat. This is not a common term and not a synonym for nutrix. The diminutive, often used in Latin to indicate affection, may have been what the child Metilianus called Sabina.

bene merenti

well-deserving. Composed of the adverb bene and the participle merens, it later came to be written as a single word benemerens or abbreviated, as here. While this praise is formulaic, Metilianus's acknowledgement of his nurse's care and his continued affection for her is demonstrated by his dedication of a monument superior to those of slaves and freedpersons found in the columbaria of large estates.

F[ecit]: understand hoc monumentum, a formula regularly found on tombstones, often abbreviated or omitted for lack of space or funds.

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