La presenza dei Flavii nell’epigrafia di Karales

FLORIS, PIERGIORGIO

2009-01-01

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Abstract

In the paper it is examined the presence of the imperial gentilicium Flavius in the epigraphic evidence of Karales (Sardinia) between the end of the republican age and the beginning of late antiquity. The analysis is carried out by evaluating onomastic data, family relations, social status of the people involved and also the chronology of the evidence. The fourteen Karalitan Flavii amount to almost the half of the entirety documented in Sardinia and the gentilicium is among the most common in the city, where in particular is very frequent in women’s onomastics. It seems to emerge the image of a group present in the different levels of city society and connected through marriages with many others documented in the city and in the surrounding territorium. Finally it is supposed that the cause of the spread of the gentilicium in Karales should probably be sought in an important activity of individual grant of citizenship that occurred mostly towards imperial slaves during the years of the Flavian dynasty (69-96 AD).