Section VIII. Family and social relationships
Section VIII. Family and social relationships
Walls 21, 19, 17, 15, 13, 11, 9B, 9A, 7, 5
In this section, ten walls are grouped together on which there are displayed – as stated in the respective captions . “epitaphs of parents and children”, “husbands and wives”, “brothers, sisters and children raised”, “patroni and freedmen and freed women”, and finally epitaphs in which the specific type of family or social relationship is uncertain. All the inscriptions are related to the theme of the Latin familia: within a house (domus) the family included both individuals linked by blood ties and placed under the authority of a pater familia, “father of a family”, and slaves (servi) in the service of the domini (masters) and freedmen (liberti) who remained close associates of the patroni (former masters). Servants and freedmen were granted due consideration – at the same level as blood relatives – and therefore received burials that were not at all modest in nature.