Born Roman Between a Beet and a Cabbage

Abstract

Abstract:A graffito (CIL 4.4533) from a Pompeian carpentry workshop (VI.14.37) describes a knight as born Roman between a beet and a cabbage. This paper explores the graffito's possible meanings by reviewing the ways these vegetables have been featured in discourse regarding agriculture, dining, parties, and metaphors or characters and posits that they were initially featured in a positive light. In later discussions, however, these humble vegetables not only signified poverty, but also the deterioration of traditional Roman values. The paper then considers the graffito's significance in the context of a carpentry workshop in a town under the Roman Empire.