Pompeia Gemella

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Pompeia Gemella (* in the 1st century; † between 79 and 81 AD in Aventicum ) was the wet nurse and governess of the Roman emperor Titus .

Life

In the years 1886/1887, in the Champs Mantillauds (Sector 3), in the necropolis in front of the west gate of the ancient Aventicum, several fragments of a marble inscription were found, which alluded to an imperial governess.

The inscription: [D (is)] M (anibus) / Pomp (eiae) Gemell (ae) / Pomp (eia) Dicea l (iberta) / et Primu [l] ia s (erva) / educat (ricis) [A ] ug (usti) n (ostri) means in translation:

“ The gods of the dead! For Pompeia Gemella, the educator of our emperor (Titus), the freedwoman Pompeia Dicea and the slave Primula had the tomb built. "

At the end of his life, Titus Flavius ​​Sabinus , the grandfather of the future emperor Titus, settled with his wife Vespasia Polla as a moneylender in Aventicum.

At that time it was customary for Roman nobles to raise their children with their grandparents, and so his grandson Titus was sent to Aventicum; he lived there until the year 43. Roman noblemen used the services of wet nurses, nannies and governesses who took on the education of the pupils. Pompeia Gemella was initially a wet nurse, then a nanny and later the governess, an educatrix Augusti nostri , of Titus.

The grave inscription with its cognomen indicates that she was a freedwoman who held an important position because she had a slave herself and had released another. They also had this tombstone erected in her honor.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pompeia Gemella funerary inscription. Retrieved September 16, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Andreas Kakoschke: Pompeia Gemella? Considerations for the inscription CIL XIII 5138 from Avenches / Aventicum. FeRA 32. 2017. 30-42 . ( academia.edu [accessed September 16, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Pompeia Gemella
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nurse and governess of the Emperor Titus
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century
DATE OF DEATH 1st century