A ''titulus pictus'' is an ancient Roman commercial inscription made on the surface of certain artefacts, usually the neck of an

amphora An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

. Typically, these inscriptions were made in red or black paint. The inscription specifies information such as origin, destination, type of product, and owner. Tituli picti are frequent on

ancient Roman pottery Pottery was produced in enormous quantities in ancient Rome, mostly for utilitarian purposes. It is found all over the former Roman Empire and beyond. Monte Testaccio is a huge mound, waste mound in Rome made almost entirely of broken amphorae us ...

containers used for trade. They were not exclusively used for trade. They were also used to provide easily recognizable

advertisements Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

and may have served as insurance if a good was damaged in some way. There are around 2,500 ''tituli picti'' recorded in CIL IV (the volume of Latin inscriptions from Pompeii and Herculaneum). The text of these inscriptions used a wide variety of

abbreviations An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

such as ''primum'', ''excellens'', ''optimum'', ''flos'', ''florum'', ''praecellens'', ''penuarium'', and ''secundarium''. It is possible that these epithets were used to convey the quality of the product. These abbreviations were organized into a style consisting of several elements.

Numerals A numeral is a figure, symbol, or group of figures or symbols denoting a number. It may refer to: * Numeral system used in mathematics * Numeral (linguistics), a part of speech denoting numbers (e.g. ''one'' and ''first'' in English) * Numerical d ...

were used to indicate the age and weight of the contents and the weight of the container when empty. The measurement of the container's weight would be duplicated by another component of the ''titulus pictus'' in the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

. There was also a ''

tria nomina Over the course of some fourteen centuries, the Romans and other peoples of Italy employed a system of nomenclature that differed from that used by other cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, consisting of a combination of personal and fami ...

'' indicating the buyer and the seller. The fifth element was the name of the owner. The structure of the ''titulus pictus'' differed depending on its usage. The most intricate ''tituli'' were for

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

oil amphorae. Usually, these ''tituli'' were painted in black, and indicated the amphora's weight, contents, producer, and owner's name in the

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

''Tituli'' from

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

were written in Greek, Latin, or both. These inscriptions informed the reader of the qualities of the wine, the volume of the container, the date, the origin, and the owner (whose name was written in red and the

dative case In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...

). The colors of the ''tituli'' conveyed information about its source. For example, white ''tituli'' were used to refer to producers. Red ones meant that the producer was a local producer. Black ''tituli'' meant the owners were wholesale traders. Different

grammatical cases A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nom ...

had different meanings when used in the ''titulus pictus''. The dative case was used to show the recipient or buyer of the good. The genitive case was used to identify the producer and owner of the product. The

ablative case In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. T ...

was used to identify the

consignor The consignor, in a contract of carriage, is the party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or ...

of the goods. The

nominative case In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...

was used to identify the consumer or wholesaler. A container found in

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

has a ''titulus pictus'' dated between the 4th century and 6th centuries that reads: One Cretan ''titulus pictus'' found in

Capua Capua ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etrusc ...

reads:

References

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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Refend Latin words and phrases Economy of ancient Rome Ancient Roman pottery

See also

References

Bibliography