Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean by Terpstra Taco;

Author:Terpstra, Taco;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2019-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

The first two names stand out for the abbreviated phrase C(aii) f(ilius), “son of Gaius,” through which the signatories signaled that they were freeborn citizens. Their surnames as well are indicative of freeborn status. Senecio and Rufus are proper Roman names, rare among slaves and freedmen and associated with the more elevated layers of Roman society.57 The top-listed witness, Senecio, also added the specification Fal(erna) to his name, indicating the citizen subunit (tribus) to which he belonged.58 But his emphasis on citizenship and freeborn status notwithstanding, his clan name, Julius, may betray descendance from an imperial freedman. As for Rufus, no other Munii appear in the archive, but they are well attested in Campania, especially in the area of Capua.59

Unlike the two signatories at the top, the other witnesses were former slaves, judging from their surnames.60 Nevertheless, at least A. Fuficius Donatus and L. Pontius Philadelphus belonged to eminent local clans. The Fuficii were prominent in Puteoli by 105 BCE, when one of their members held a high municipal magistracy there. They are subsequently attested widely in Campania until the end of the second century CE.61 L. Pontii are recorded in Puteoli in late-republican times, and appear among the urban elite of Cumae in the Augustan period.62

The surname of T. Vestorius, who is number five on this list, cannot be read with certainty, but he was in any case a member of the Vestorii, just as the contracting parties. If the reading “Phoenix” is correct, he might have been the seller, although he seems more likely to have been a third party.63 Number six below him has a name with a strong local flavor. “Paccius” is Oscan in origin, and C. Paccius Felix thus seems to have belonged to an old bloodline with pre-Roman roots. Though not frequently attested in Puteoli, the Paccii were well known in Campania. They counted several officeholders among their ranks, including eventually a proconsul in the 70s CE.64 The surname of the seventh witness can no longer be read, but the Claudii were certainly prominent in Campania, as scattered evidence shows. C. Claudii are attested as city magistrates at Paestum in the mid-first century BCE. Two of their most eminent members are also known to have possessed real estate in Herculaneum and Liternum at the time of the late republic.65 We can say far less about the next witness listed, C. Mateius Primogenius. The Mateii are rarely attested, appearing only once in Pompeii and once in Herculaneum.66

Finally, C. Suettius Dama unquestionably belonged to a clan that ranked among the Puteolan elite. In Cicero’s letters (Ad Att. 13.12.4), a certain Suettius appears as coheir to an estate in the vicinity of Puteoli.67 The wax tablets show how the Suettii were still prominent in the city during the Julio-Claudian period. From two documents we learn that they had built an altar to Augustus in the Puteolan forum. An inscription further refers to a colonnaded vestibule that they had constructed there. The vestibule and the altar had likely been built together as a single public monument.

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