A Travelling Speculator (CIL III 1650): A Glimpse of the Everyday Life of the Principales through the Window of Roman Funerary Art
A Travelling Speculator (CIL III 1650): A Glimpse of the Everyday Life of the Principales through the Window of Roman Funerary Art

Summary/Abstract: The focus of the paper is on the travel scene depicted on the funerary stele of L. Blassius Nigellio (CIL III 1650), a speculator of legio VII Claudia, from Viminacium. Seeking to gain a more comprehensive understanding of this scene from the everyday professional life of a Roman speculator, it draws attention to an iconographic pattern shared by a group of monuments of Roman principales (speculatores, frumentarii, beneficiarii consularis) among which the scene from Viminacium holds a very important place. It also takes a look at the origin and social status of the Upper Moesian speculator who could afford such a costly tombstone.

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