Lucius Caecilius Iucundus

Caecilius Iucundus

Lucius Caecilius Iucundus († 62 or later) was a banker and tax farmer in ancient Pompeii . His name and activities are recorded because a number of the receipts for his business are preserved.

The person

Little is known about Lucius Caecilius Iucundus as a person. The name of his father, Lucius Caecilius Felix, has been passed down as he was led by the ministri Augusti Mercuri Maiae in 1 AD. It can also be found on one of the receipts. Lucius Caecilius Felix was a freedman of a member of one of the important Roman families, the Caecilier , and achieved great wealth and reputation himself, as a bronze bust in his son's house shows. The older literature assumed that the bust that was found shows Iucundus himself, while the newer literature assumes that it is more of the father due to stylistic features.

Several election recommendations found in Pompeii on a shop wall to the left of his house refer to Lucius Caecilius Iucundus. His name is also noted on an amphora in another shop: Caecilio Iucundo from Sexto Metello . Iucundus owned one of the few houses with cellars in Pompeii. The numerous, partly erotic , frescoes found in his house are now in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples . It is unclear whether Iucundus owned a villa in Boscoreale . Since the last receipts received are dated a few days before the earthquake that caused great damage in Pompeii on February 5, 62, he may have died in the process. On the other hand, two reliefs from the altar in his house could also be interpreted as thanks for his rescue in this catastrophe.

The receipt boards

On July 3rd and 5th, 1875, the house of Lucius Caecilius Iucundus was excavated under the direction of Giuseppe Fiorelli (Regio V, 1, 26). His calendarium , a wooden box for storing important documents, was found in the corridor above the peristyle . In the calendarium there were 151 wooden panels, some with two wings (diptych) and - mostly - with three wings (triptych). The panels are between 10 and 14.5 cm wide and approx. 7 cm high. The original layer of written wax was no longer preserved, but the pen with which the tablets were written, scratched the wood underneath so that the words, numbers and letters can be recognized. The content of the tables was first published in Italy in 1876, and in 1877 with a comment by Theodor Mommsen in Hermes . Karl Zangemeister published it in Supplement I to Volume IV of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum . Two more panels were found in a house in Regio VIII, 2, in 1887, so that a total of 153 panels are known. 59 of them are dated, the period in which the receipts were issued extends from 52 to 62 with the exception of two panels. One dates from the year 15 and is made out in the name of the father of Iucundus.

The content of the panels

The boards are receipts for certain amounts of money and payment terms for different legal bases. Iucundus initially acted as a commercial banker and later as a coactor for tax revenue. The amounts as well as the deadlines are different, they range from 342 to 38,079 sesterces and from a few days to ten months. The items in the receipts relating to sales contracts are also very different, for example cotton , slaves or donkeys . For example, until the year 57, a formula was:

"2000 sesterces. L. Titus has confirmed (dixit) that, according to the stipulation of L. Caecilius Iucundus for an auction of L. Titus on February 1st, he has received this sum, which was promised [to the buyer] , in full, minus the costs of L. Caecilius Iucundus of 2%. Given at Pompeii, on the 15th day before the calendar, under the consulate of L. Drusus and P. Clodius. "

Iucundus made his profit from the fees he charged for advancing the money to the buyer and making it immediately available to the seller. From 57 the formula changes. Instead of the dixit , scripsi is used :

"I, L. Titus, wrote (scripsi) that I received the sum of 6252 sesterces for a sale from L. Caecilius Iucundus, minus the costs, after I checked the receipt."

The older form of the receipt is called perscriptio , the other is called chirographum . Often times, slaves appear as witnesses or signatories who do the business for their masters. Because they also spoke Greek, some receipts are written in Greek.

Based on the receipts, Iucundus almost completely gave up his activity as a banker in the later years and appeared predominantly as a coactor of the colony and the tax collector . Iucundus issued receipts for various types of taxes , municipal leases for land (avitum et patritum) , leases for a fulling mill (fullonica) , leases for pasture land (pascua) and stall fees for market participants (mercatus) were acknowledged by him. He probably drew part of his profit from the fact that he provided tax collectors with payment facilities in return for interest.

literature

• Robert Etienne: Pompeii - Life in an Ancient City. Gutenberg Book Guild , Frankfurt, Vienna, Zurich 1978, ISBN 3763222170 .
• Theodor Mommsen : The Pompeian receipt tablets of L. Caecilius Iucundus. In: Hermes . Volume 12, 1877, pp. 88-141 ( online ).
• Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Zangemeister (Ed.): Inscriptionum parietariarum Pompeianarum supplementum. Pars I. Tabulae ceratae Pompeis repertae annis MDCCCLXXV et MDCCCLXXXVII (= Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Volume IV, supplementi pars I). Reimer, Berlin 1898 ( online ).
• Arno Hüttemann (Ed., Transl., Comm.): The Pompeian receipt boards of Lucius Caecilius Iucundus. Latin / German. WBG, Darmstadt 2017.

Web links

Commons : Frescoes from the house of Lucius Caecilius Iucundus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Etienne: Pompeii - Life in an Ancient City , p. 174.
2. ↑ Alex Butterworth, Ray Laurence: Pompeii: The Living City. St. Martin's Press, New York 2005, p. 75.
3. ↑ CIL 4, 3424 ; CIL 4, 3428 and CIL 4, 3473 .
4. ↑ CIL 4, 5788 .
5. ↑ Etienne: Pompeii - Life in an ancient city , p. 266.
6. ↑ Etienne: Pompeii - Life in an Ancient City , p. 178.
7. ^ Butterworth, Laurence: Pompeii: The Living City. P. 186f.
8. ↑ Esaù Dozio: Two reliefs from the house of Lucius Caecilius Jucundus .
9. ↑ Etienne: Pompeii - Life in an Ancient City , p. 176.
10. ^ Translation according to Etienne: Pompeji - Life in an ancient city , p. 175.
11. ↑ See Tacitus , Annalen 13:31.
12. ^ Translation according to Etienne: Pompeji - Life in an ancient city , p. 175.
13. ↑ Etienne: Pompeii - Life in an Ancient City , p. 178.