Marcus Ulpius Callistus Inscription

inscription for Cornelia Frontina

DIS MANIBVS
CORNELIAE FRONTINAE
VIXIT ANNIS XVI M[ensibus] VII
M[arcus] ULPIUS AVG[usti] LIB[ertus] CALLISTVS
PATER PRAEPOSITVS ARMAMENTARIO
LVDI MAGNI ET FLAVIA NICE CONIVXS
SANCTISSIMA FECERVNT SIBI
LIBERTIS LIBERTABVSQ[ue] POSTERISQ[ue] EOR[um]

To the spirits of the dead: For Cornelia Frontina, who lived 16 years and 7 months, her father, Marcus Ulpius Callistus, freedman of the emperor, overseer in the armory of the Ludus Magnus, and Flavia Nice, his most virtuous wife, set up this [monument] for themselves, their freedmen and freedwomen, and their descendants. (CIL 6.10164; second century CE).

The freedman Callistus had an important post as adminstrator of the storeroom for gladiatorial weapons in the Ludus Magnus, the school and barracks for gladiators near the Colosseum in Rome. The name of his wife indicates that she was also a freedwoman (by a member of the Flavian gens), but the daughter's name is puzzling, since her nomen has no relation to that of Callistus or his wife (although the inscription does not say that Nice was the girl's mother). The name appears to be that of a slave woman who was freed by a member of the gens Cornelia, but because of her young age she would have had to be freed for the purpose of marrying her master.