Rapporti familiari a Mutina e nel suo agro tra III e V secolo d.C.: considerazioni alla luce della documentazione epigrafica

The paper focuses on the collection and analysis of the epigraphic evidence in Mutina dating from the 3rd century AD to the 5th century AD, with particular attention to funerary inscriptions. For the period between the half of the 3rd century AD and the half of the 4th century AD it can be noted a significant presence of military officers and exponents of the bureaucracy, who often reused ancienter proconnesian marble sarcophagi for themselves or their relatives. Almost all the inscriptions contain an explicit indication of the family relationships among the persons mentioned so it is possible to reconstruct family units which sometimes include ancestors until the second generation. An interesting case is that of the vir consularis L. Nonius Verus, for whom epigraphic documents allow to reconstruct more than a family unit. In fact there are three inscriptions which have been traditionally related to L. Nonius Verus and mention three different wifes (CIL XI 831, 832, 1017); in particular two of them surely concern the vir consularis whereas the third one could be attributed to a namesake relative.