Abstract
A threefold inscription scratched on a tile found in the surroundings of Reggio Calabria, dating back to late 2nd century BCE, evidences for insults addressed to slaves employed in a local pottery. Both context and abusive terms point to a controversy broken out among colleagues within the place of work. The offensive words reveal a Greek-Latin bilingualism, in which Latin plays the role of language first learned and used in everyday speeches, as well as the high degree of literacy of slaves, confirmed by similar manufactures with Latin and Oscan inscriptions. Nevertheless the threefold inscription raises some questions about text cohesiveness and, more importantly, the number of the addressees implied by the sequence of appellatives in vocative case, which is the key point for understanding the text as a whole.
Highlights
A threefold inscription scratched on a tile found in the surroundings of Reggio Calabria, dating back to late 2nd century BCE, evidences for insults addressed to slaves employed in a local pottery
We may wonder to what extent, abusive expressions work as a comic strategy in theatrical plays for featuring slave speeches or they merely mirror a real way of addressing slaves
As said above, the nature of two abusive terms, i.e. ψευδοκαμινάρι and μάλημπτε, that formulate a blame for laziness or conscious negligence relevant to job activities, points to a controversy originated by an imbalanced amount of tasks and inequality of work conditions among colleagues employed in the same place of work
Summary
Insults are considered among the most conventionalised impolite expressions. Rude and offensive expressions put in mouth of slaves very often result from a remarkable proficiency in language, that enables them to master lexical resources for creating new terms and word-plays. Not rarely both interlocutors recognize their equal capabilities in insulting reciprocally. Bilingual abilities, frequent in slave environments, give rise to jokes obtained by combining lexemes of both languages familiar to the speakers or to word plays basing on the double meaning of some lexical items common to different languages Both strategies are frequently displayed by Aristophanes, in the Greek front, and Plautus, in the Roman front. We may wonder to what extent, abusive expressions work as a comic strategy in theatrical plays for featuring slave speeches or they merely mirror a real way of addressing slaves
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