What Latin Inscriptions Reveal About Ordinary Romans

What Latin Inscriptions Reveal About Ordinary Romans

If you walk through the ruins of a Roman city, the grand monuments reflect the history of the elites, the emperors, generals, and senators. But if you look closer at the walls of a bakery or the surface of a modest tombstone, a different Roman world emerges. Here, the language is not the formal Latin of Cicero, but the sermo vulgaris of the street. It is the sound of a gladiator bragging about his victories, a lover complaining about a cold bed,…