Impoliteness among slaves - An epigraphic evidence for insults from a Graeco-Roman bilingual context of Southern Italy

Abstract

A threefold inscription scratched on a tile found in the surroundings of Reggio Calabria, dating back to late 2nd century BCE, evidences for insults addressed to slaves employed in a local pottery. Both context and abusive terms point to a controversy broken out among colleagues within the place of work. The offensive words reveal a Greek-Latin bilingualism, in which Latin plays the role of language first learned and used in everyday speeches, as well as the high degree of literacy of slaves, confirmed by similar manufactures with Latin and Oscan inscriptions. Nevertheless the threefold inscription raises some questions about text cohesiveness and, more importantly, the number of the addressees implied by the sequence of appellatives in vocative case, which is the key point for understanding the text as a whole.