The Testamentum Dasumii refers to an inscription in several pieces found in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, that bears the only Roman will inscribed on stone. Originally presenting the complete will, while the surviving pieces of the inscription include parts of all 133 lines, much of the beginning and ends of all of the lines are missing. Nevertheless, it is of great value for prosopographic reasons, as well as an example of a Roman legal document for which otherwise there are few examples.
Description
Pieces of this inscription were first found in 1820, containing lines 1-56 and more were identified in 1830, containing lines 57-133.
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th cent ...
reconstructed this document for publication in the series ''
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
The ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (''CIL'') is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw ...
'', which was considered as faithful as possible until the recovery of a further piece by Antonio Ferrua in the 1970s, which added to the first 19 lines of the inscription. This new fragment proved Mommsen's restorations of those lines as inaccurate, and brought into question his restoration of the rest of the inscription. Since then, Werner Eck has offered a new restoration of those lines based on Ferrua's discovery, which while commonly accepted is still considered tentative.Eck, "Zum neuen Fragment des sogenannten ''Testamentum Dasumii''", ''
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik
The ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' (commonly abbreviated ZPE; "Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy") is a peer-reviewed academic journal which contains articles that pertain to papyrology and epigraphy. It has been described as "th ...
'', 30 (1978), pp. 277-95
The inscription is dated to the
consulate
A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth coun ...
of
Publius Aelius Hadrianus
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
The will mentions a number of people -- the Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg counts 87 different people -- most prominent are the emperor
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
, the consuls
Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus
Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus (45 – 136 AD) was an Iberian Roman politician. He was a prominent public figure in the reigns of Roman emperors Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian. He was the last private citizen to receive a third consulship; such honors ...
, and
Quintus Sosius Senecio
Quintus Sosius Senecio ( 1st century AD) was a Roman senator who was favored by the emperors Domitian and Trajan. As a result of this relationship, he was twice ordinary consul, an unusual and prestigious honor: first in 99, with Aulus Cornelius P ...
. However, scholarly interest has primarily focused on the identity of the testator of the will. Bartolomeo Borghesi, noting a Da umiaamongst the heirs, and observing mention of a nurse Dasumia Syche, whom Borghesi concluded was a
freedman
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...
of the testator, identified him as a member of the
gens
In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; plural: ''gentes'' ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same Roman naming conventions#Nomen, nomen and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a ''stirps'' (p ...
Dasumius -- hence the name of the stone. Mommsen embraced this identification, and at one point the testator was identified with Lucius Dasumius Hadrianus, suffect consul about 93, but various details prevented complete acceptance. It took Werner Eck's work to refute the identification decisively and show the testator did not belong to that ''gens''.
Following Eck's article, Ronald Syme proposed
Gnaeus Domitius Tullus
Gnaeus Domitius Tullus was a Roman senator and military commander active in the first century AD. His full name is Gnaeus Domitius Curvius Tullus. He was twice suffect consul: the first time between 76 and 79; the second time for the '' nundinium ...
as the testator. More recently, Joshua Tate has raised the possibility that the testator may not even be a senator, but points out that many problems in the document are resolved if he had been a wealthy freedman. "Until further research provides a more definite answer," Tate concludes, "we must remain open to the possibility that the testator was not only an ''Ignotus'', but an ''Ignotus libertus''".
Other examples of Roman wills
There are few other examples of Roman wills. Literary sources present a few fictional examples, the will of Trimalchio in
Petronius
Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter" Satyricon'' being the best known one. A less well known fictive example is the humorous ''Testamentum Porcelli'', the last testament of a pig named M. Grunnius Corocotta, who dictates his testament in his last hours before being slaughtered by a butcher.
Pliny the Younger
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger (), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate ...
recounts the opening of the will of his friend Domitius Tullus, without providing any information on the legal language of the document. A handful of actual wills have been identified amongst the papyrus, written by soldiers in Egypt such as Antonius Silvanus,Published as ''Fontes iuris Romani antiustiniani'', second edition (1940-43), III.47 but these are military wills and observe practices different than the so-called ''Testamentum Dasumii'', which is an example of a will '' amentum per aes ci libram''.