Slab with epitaph for an African

Photogallery

Slab with epitaph for an African
Slab with epitaph for an African
Section XVI. Christian inscriptions, II

Here just two words are necessary to identify both a person and a place: the proper name, Vernac(u)lus, and the ethnic name Carpitanus. The name, which has passed to modern Italian vocabulary (vernacolo), corresponds to the diminutive of Verna, “slave born at home”. The ethnic name, according to a custom still in use, socially defines the person, known as “the Carpitan”, from Carpis, on the coast of Capo Bon, Tunisia, one of the North African port cities from which large quantities of raw materials and foodstuffs, produced in vast private and public holdings, were transported to Rome, capital of the Empire. We know nothing more other than that, like many others, he came to Rome and his life came to an end there. We are not aware of his religious beliefs: the inscription does not contain textual or figurative elements implying Christianity (the pitcher or urceus to the left are not typically Christian subjects), nor is known the catacomb of origin.