DYING

In the modern western world we have become accustomed to quantifying the risk of mortality; percentages and figures per thousand define life and death. We know how long we can expect to live for, what is likely to kill us and our relative risk of morbidity in relation to our age, gender and socio-economic group. It comes as no surprise that there are no such comparable figures and statistics for ancient Rome, or at least none that can be guaranteed as reliable. Some numbers are available to conjure with, since the recording of ages was fairly commonplace. Inscribed ages of death, literary anecdotes, census data and Ulpian’s life table (used for calculating tax to be paid on bequests) all provide valuable data. In addition, skeletal analysis of human remains can age individuals and thus potentially whole cemetery populations. However, it has often been noted that all these sources have shortcomings in providing reliable figures for the demography of the Roman population (Frier 2000; Parkin 1992). Skeletons, for example, can be difficult to age precisely and rarely do we have access to a cemetery that preserves sufficient numbers from a full range (age and gender) of the population. Equally, epitaphs may record thousands of ages at death, but these tend to reflect certain commemorative habits rather than mirroring standard life expectancy. In short, those commemorated in epitaphs may not be representative of the population at large, and epigraphic age statements, when given, often characterize certain groups and relationships (Hopkins 1966, 1987). Besides which, age statements, found on epitaphs and elsewhere, were often inaccurate; ages were frequently rounded up or down to numbers that included the numerals V and X (Duncan-Jones 1977, 1990). Census data is defined by similar inaccuracies and age exaggeration. Pliny the Elder records some figures from a census carried out in AD 72-4. In one region of Italy many people had claimed to be over 100 years old and several over 140 years (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7.49). Despite Pliny’s claims to accuracy the quoted numbers, as so often in ancient writing, make for an interesting and entertaining rather than a strictly accurate read. This is not to say that Pliny or those who participated in the census were deliberately dishonest. Old age

warrants claimed to be older than they were. We also need to remember that in a world where only the minority of the population was literate, and where few records were kept, many may have had only an imprecise notion of their actual age.