Geminia Agathè. Dum uixi lusi

Abstract

The famous versified epitaph of the young Geminia Agathe Mater, who died in Rome at the age of five years, seven months and twenty-two days, describes the deceased with a particularly strong personal dimension. The expression dum uixi lusi, “as long as I lived, I played” refers to an activity that must be placed in the broader context of children’s epitaphs, as well as tombs with game material. This article examines the different meanings that this allusion to play may have contained, from the evocation of a happy time of life, synonymous with social and family integration, to consolation, perhaps with an eschatological connotation of appeasement and completeness.

Keywords

• childhood
• death
• family
• funerary epigraphy
• play
• sociability