Registrazione della tribù in iscrizioni metriche

In a full and annotated list of Latin metric inscriptions (ca. 80, almost all sepulchral), a tribe is mentioned in the nomenclature of dedicatees or dedicators. Some typological and sociological remarks on them are also indicated. There are several inscriptions, particularly envisaged and discussed, in which a tribe is mentioned for babies or boys under age. Their ascription to a tribe could only be expected, if they had not died before. By the improper mention of the tribe for under aged (that otherwise occurs in nearly 2% of all tribe-mentioning inscriptions), parents or other relatives, almost always belonging to freed people’s milieu, seem to express their pride together with regret for their untimely died child. The child was meant to be a civis Romanus pleno iure, usually the first in his family. A metric addition could give a wider and clearer expression to such feelings.