Social Interactions and Status Markers in the Roman World

Proceedings from the ‘People of the Ancient World’ conference held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania in 2016. Ten papers encompass diverse approaches to Roman provincial populations and the corresponding case-studies highlight the multi-faceted character of Roman society.

In 2016, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, some forty scholars from around the world attended the People of the Ancient World conference. This was organized within the framework of the Romans 1 by 1 project, and its main focus was on improving knowledge on ancient populations, employing a variety of methodologies, tools and research techniques. The presentations provided the editors with ten papers to be further developed and reunited under these covers. They encompass diverse approaches to Roman provincial populations and the corresponding case-studies highlight the multi-faceted character of Roman society. The volume takes four main directions: prosopography (from Italy to Spain); ancient professions and professionals (merchants in Noricum, Lower Moesia, general nomenclature and encoding of professions, associations and family life); onomastics and origins, and finally, the military (iconography of funerary monunments and centurions’ social life). The publication is intended, on one hand, to enhance knowledge of the diversity of Roman social standings, of the exhibited social markers and – perhaps most important – stress the variety of forms which express status and place within the community, and on the other, to reiterate a series of fresh, modern views on these matters, resulting from a gathering of mostly junior researchers.