Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo — funerary slogan
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 101). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Plausible
Date or witness: Roman imperial tradition; selected inscription catalogued 151–200 CE, with an alternative 1st-century dating
Region: Roman funerary inscriptions; selected altar from Lectoure, France
Workbook date-sort bounds: 151 CE to 200 CE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
The deceased describes not existing, living, and no longer existing or caring. The Donnia Italia inscription supplies a variant of this widely attested philosophical formula.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
A widely attested funerary slogan has textual variants; the selected inscription commemorates Donnia Italia, explicitly a freedwoman.
What remains uncertain
Freed status is direct, but occupation and wealth are not. Funerary commissions may use professional templates, so spontaneous circulation is not demonstrated.
Candidate-index family 16: Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo — funerary slogan
The workbook groups records 101 here and rates the family Plausible. This is a research shortlist, not proof of an independently established meme family.
Dated evidence: Roman imperial tradition; selected inscription catalogued 151–200 CE, with an alternative 1st-century dating
Region: Roman funerary inscriptions; selected altar from Lectoure, France
Shortlist uncertainty: Freed status is direct, but occupation and wealth are not. Funerary commissions may use professional templates, so spontaneous circulation is not demonstrated.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria