Ricerc@Sapienza

Right after Rome, the ancient city of Ostia is the archaeological site where the most considerable number of Latin inscriptions has been discovered. After the publication of the XIV volume of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (1887) and the Supplementum Ostiense (1930), a significant number of new inscriptions was brought to light during the “Grandi Scavi 1938-1942”, the majority of which remained unpublished. Few years ago, a group of Italian and French researchers started a project for the systematic edition of such archaeological evidence.

Funerary inscriptions may offer a very important insight in the main activities undertaken by the deceased during their life and in a few cases they can also reveal their origins. Even if with caution, mostly because of the difficulty of considering the remaining epigraphic documents as really representative of the actual social situation, we can consider the funerary sphere as a substantial image of the various different people and cultures living and meeting each other in the harbour cities.