Mixed-Language Inscriptions, Social Groups and Freedmen in Roman Ephesus

Abstract

Mixed-language (Greek-Latin) inscriptions are exceptionally frequent in Ephesus. The paper aims at identifying the factors that can account for such a particular epigraphic production within the complex social spectrum of this polis, which was the capital of the Roman province of Asia. The linguistic choices of the Italian community and their freedmen – the most represented segments of the population – are examined in detail. In conclusion, it is argued that the new legal restrictions imposed on liberti and their descendants after the Augustan Principate could have motivated the use of mixed-language inscriptions by this social group.