I’ve been looking at this inscription for a while, trying to figure out what it says, but I still don’t fully understand it. The lettering of this inscription is very clean and well-organized, making it easy to read for those who understand Latin. With the information given about this inscription, I know it was found in ancient Cemenelum, in the Roman province of Alpes Maritimae (modern find spot: Nice, Cimiez). I also found that this inscription is listed in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL: 05, 07904). This database does not give the exact date of this inscription, but since it was found in Cemenelum, it may have been carved in the Roman Imperial period. The database does not provide the name of the person who wrote the inscription either. Looking closely, the letters are so neatly carved, deep and evenly spaced, making me think someone very good at writing wrote this. From our lessons in class and from reading part of The Cambridge manual of Latin epigraphy by Cooley, these inscriptions were usually meant for the public and placed in public settings for others to read. This inscription probably has something meaningful on it that isn’t meant to be hidden or kept secret.

From my map of inscriptions, I can see they appear all over the empire. I found this super interesting because it shows that even small towns far from Rome had inscriptions, meaning Romans used public writing everywhere. Showing that the Romans really cared about writing things down and preserving history for years to come. Writing their names and achievements in stone makes them last much longer and be more permanent than a piece of paper in our world today. This makes it seem like inscribing things wasn’t unusual at all; it was just something the Romans regularly did, and it became part of who they were.

When referring to MacMullen’s article on the “epigraphic habit” in Rome, it discusses how much the Romans inscribed important information on stone in public places for others to read. Even though I can’t fully read the inscription I chose, it’s very likely to contain important information placed in a public place. Someone wanted their name, achievement, or role to be read and remembered years down the road. This also shows that these memories and the recognition of these people in the inscriptions mattered. Today, we have a ton of online databases that let us view these inscriptions from all over the world. These images and maps allow us to see patterns and things we wouldn’t be able to see in person or catch as easily. These tools help us better understand today how common these public inscriptions were and allow us to zoom in on the research and compare it with a ton of others. After seeing all of this shows how common this practice actually was. It shows us just how important public writing was to Roman society.