Epitaph of the freedwoman Daphnis by her husband Hermes created by Fabio Spalla MAPPOLA Database This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. MPL00252 200195 https://db.mappola.eu/r/Inscription/show/252 unknown slab marble complete 31.0 24.0 None chiselled Verse + Prose Yes, by bigger lettering in prose Yes To separate words - Interpunction 1.3-2.1 Carthago 71-100 Carthago Byrsa, cemetery of the "officiales" of Bir-el-Djebbana. 36.85 10.318 no

Encoded following EpiDoc guidelines 9.5

 Greek Greek-Latin Latin Multilingual Ancient Greek written in Latin script Latin written in Greek script funerary inscription

Daphnis Hermes

Source: EDCS-24900355 (c) Clauss/Slaby
Daphnis ego Hermetis coniunx sum libera facta. Cum dominus vellet primu Hermes liber ut esset, fato ego facta prior, fato ego rapta prior. Quae tuli, quod gemui gemitus viro saepe reliqui, quae domino invito vitam dedi proxime nato. Nunc quis alet natum, quis vitae longa ministrat? Me Styga quod rapuit tam cito enim a superissuperos. Pia vixit annis XXV. Hic sita est.

Text follows Hamdoune. Picture checked by Spalla 2025. l. 2: primu(s) or primu(m), Engström. primu(s), CLE. l. 4: gemui for genui, Bianchi. l. 6: vitae longa for vitam longam, CLE.

I, Daphnis, Hermes’ wife, was freed. While my master wanted to free Hermes first, I was made free before, by fate, I was snatched away before, by fate. By embracing what I mourned, I left my husband with frequent mourning, as I just very recently gave life to a son, against the wish of my master. Who will now feed the son? Who will cater for him for the duration of his life? For death snatched me so quickly to the heavenly gods. She lived dutifully for 25 years. She is buried here.

Yo, esposa de Dafnis Hermes, he sido manumitida; aunque el patrón hubiera querido que Hermes fuese libre primero, por mano del destino lo fui yo antes y también por mano del destino he muerto antes. Yo, que soporté una situación tan lamentable, dejé más motivos de llanto aun para mi esposo, pues, sin quererlo mi señor, entregué mi vida a cambio de un hijo recién nacido. Y ahora ¿quién va a alimentar al niño?, ¿quién le va a proporcionar las cosas dulces de la vida? Pues la Éstige me arrancó de entre los vivos demasiado pronto.

Moi, Daphnis, épuse d'Hermès, j'ai été libérée. Alors que le maître voulait qu'Hermès fût libre d'abord, le destin m'a libérée la première, le destin m'a enlevée la première. Mes souffrances, mes plaintes, je les ai laissées à mon mari, comme sujets d'incessantes plaintes, moi qui viens, contre le gré du maître, de donner vie à un fils. Qui maintenant va nourrir ce fils, qui va consacrer du temps pour qu'il vive, puisque en effet le Styx m'a si tôt ravie au monde d'en-haut ? Elle ha vécu pieusement vingt cinq ans. Elle se trouve ici.

Dating proposed by Lassère. Delattre 1898 proposes a dating to the beginning of the 2nd century AD. Bianchi proposes a dating to the 3rd century AD, based on mistakes in prosody.

D. Murzea, Femina et Carmina. Female Agency and Authorship in Roman Verse Inscriptions, Vienna 2025, p.420,no.220. CIL 08, Suppl. 04, 24734 CLE 02115 ILTun 00987 A. L. Delattre, Bulletin de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France. Séance du 16 Décembre, Bull. Soc. Ant. Fr. (1896), 347 - AE 1897 AE 1897, 00043 A. L. Delattre, Les cimetières romaines superposés de Carthage (1896) (Suite), Rev. Arch. 33 (1898), 338-339, nr. 21 (with photo, 338, fig. 1; also on alternative dating) E. Bianchi, Carmina Latina Epigraphica Africana, Stud. It. Filol. Class. 18 (1910), 71-72 (also on alternative dating) E. Engström, Carmina Latina Epigraphica (post editionem Buechelerianam in luce prolata), Gothenburg-Leipzig 1912, 96-97, nr. 296. S. Brassloff, Manumissio post mortem?, Hermes 67, 2 (1932), 243. F. A. Sullivan, Virgil and the Latin epitaphs, Class. Journ. (Georg.) 51, 1 (1955), 19. J.-M. Lassère, Recherches sur la chronologie des épitaphes païennes de l'Africa, Ant. Afr. 7 (1973), 141 (on dating) D. Pikhaus, Répertoire des inscriptions latines versifiées de l'Afrique romaine (Ier-VIe siècles), Vol. 1. Tripolitaine, Byzacène, Afrique Proconsulaire, Bruxelles 1994, 68, nr. A31. C. Fernández Martínez, Poesía epigráfica latina II, Madrid 1999, 318-319, nr. 2115 (Spanish translation of ll. 1-7) C. Hamdoune, Vie, mort et poésie dans l'Afrique romaine d'après un choix de Carmina Latina Epigraphica, Bruxelles 2011, 92-93, nr. 44 (with French translation and photo, tab. 15, fig. 15) N. Benseddik, Femmes en Afrique ancienne, Bordeaux 2017, 124 (French translation) - AE 2017 AE 2017, 01671 https://db.edcs.eu/epigr/epi_url.php?s_sprache=en&p_edcs_id=EDCS-24900355 | EDCS-24900355 https://edh.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/edh/inschrift/HD022661 | HD022661 https://www.mqdq.it/textsce/CE|ce|2115 | MQDQ https://humanidadesdigitales.uc3m.es/s/nuevo-sirar/item/46768 | SIRAR 3352 https://thepetrifiedmuse.blog/2015/06/12/departure-abandonment-and-grief-latin-poems-about-death-in-childbirth/ | The Petrified Muse (with English translation)