Water rights for tombs in eleven inscriptions from Rome

Roman epitaphs occasionally mention the water supply for the tomb and the legal arrangements securing that water, as illustrated in eleven Latin inscriptions from in and around Rome. In these inscriptions, Romans use legal language to secure water rights and to express their aspirations and expectations for a lasting identity. Analysis of these legal expressions reveals the nature of water rights for tombs and their relationship to both the ius civile and to religious law. But the legal language was often imprecise, so that the epitaphs operated in the so-called “shadow of the law,” where the law shaped the choices of Roman tomb founders and in turn, these individuals made law server their social practice and beliefs.