A funerary monument at Pompeii
Text and transl.: M. Osanna, ‘Games, Banquets, Handouts, and the Population of Pompeii as Deduced
from a New Tomb Inscription’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 31 (2018) 310–322.
Hic togae virilis suae epulum populo pompeiano
triclinis CCCCLVI ita ut in triclinis quinideni
homines discumberent (hedera). Munus
gladiat(orium) / adeo magnum et splendidum
dedit ut cuivis ab urbe lautissimae coloniae
conferendum esset ut pote cum CCCCXVI
gladiatores in ludo habuer(it ?) et cum / munus
eius in caritate annonae incidisset, propter quod
quadriennio eos pavit, potior ei cura civium
suorum fuit quam rei familiaris; nam cum esset
denaris quinis modius tritici, coemit / et ternis
victoriatis populo praestitit et, ut ad omnes haec
liberalitas eius perveniret, viritim populo ad
ternos victoriatos per amicos suos panis cocti
pondus divisit (hedera). Munere suo quod ante /
On occasion of assuming the toga virilis, he
offered to the Pompeian people a banquet on
456 three-sided couches so that upon each couch
15 persons reclined. He offered a gladiatorial
show of such grandiosity and magnificence as to
be able to be compared with (that of) any of the
most noble colonies founded by Rome, since
416 gladiators participated.
Now, because his generosity coincided with a
famine, for this reason he fed them for 4 years,
and the care he showed his fellow citizens was
greater than that for his own patrimony; when a
peck (modius) of wheat was quoted (valued) at 5
denarii [= 20 sesterces], he bought it and made it
available to the people for 3 victoriati [= 6
sesterces] a modius. Further, so that his
generosity would reach everyone, through his
friends he distributed to the people one by one
an amount of baked bread worth 3 victoriati [= 6
sesterces].
On the occasion of his show, which he had
organised prior to the senatus consultum, for
every day of the games and for every combat
5 senatus consult(um) edidit, omnibus diebus
lusionum et conpositione promiscue omnis
generis bestias venationibus dedit (hedera) / et,
cum Caesar omnes familias ultra ducentesimum
ab urbe ut abducerent iussisset, uni / huic ut
Pompeios in patriam suam reduceret permisit.
Idem quo die uxorem duxit, decurionibus
quinquagenos nummos singulis, populo denarios
augustalibus vicenos pagan(is) vicenos nummos
dedit. Bis magnos ludos sine onere / rei publicae
fecit; propter quae postulante populo, cum
universus ordo consentiret ut patronus
cooptaretur et IIvir referret, ipse privatus
intercessit dicens non sustinere se civium
suorum esse patronum.
event he provided animals of all species, without
distinction, for the hunts.
And when Caesar had ordered that they deport
from the City beyond the two-hundredth mile all
the gladiatorial households [schools], to this
man alone he [Caesar] granted that he restore
[return] the two persons named Pompeius to
their home town.
On the occasion of his wedding, he gifted the
sum of 50 bronze nummi [= 50 sesterces] to
every single decurion, to the people he gave 20
silver denarii [= 50 sesterces] for each
Augustalis, and 20 nummi [= 20 bronze
sesterces] for each paganus.
He organised great spectacles on two occasions
without any burden upon the community.
For these things [deeds], with the people
demanding it, when the entire local senate
agreed that he should be coopted as patron, and
the duovir [presiding magistrate] put the issue to
the local senate for a vote, he himself in a
private capacity [as a private citizen] intervened
and said that he was unable to allow that he be a
patron of his own (fellow) citizens.