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Just Plain Joe

[image ALT: A small Roman inscription set into a border of tile or brick in a crumbling wall. It is the inscription of Publius Caprilius in Spello, Umbria (central Italy).]

(You can zoom in even closer on this inscription at the Epigraphy quiz page)

Transcribed and expanded:

1 5	DIS · MANIBVS PVBLIO · CAPRILIO IANVARIO PVBLIVS · VETRONIVS PRIMVS IANVARIVS ET · PRIMA PATRI · BENE · MERENTI

Translated:

To the Shades of the Dead
(in memory of) Publius Caprilius
Ianuarius:
Publius Vetronius,
Primus
Ianuarius
and Prima
(in memory of their) well-deserving father

This is the tombstone of an ordinary man, probably a widower since it is set up only by his children. His daughter Prima seems to be unmarried, since otherwise her husband's name would appear, and even, as a member only of her husband's family, she would probably not even have been involved in this memorial: this suggests to me that she was quite young. Her brother Primus is not of age either — in fact he is very young since he has not been given a proper first name yet —, and Publius Vetronius must be their guardian.

Caprilius himself thus appears to have been fairly young when he died, in his twenties or thirties. He had no military or official rank, otherwise it surely would have been mentioned.

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