Umbricia Fortunata

Umbricia Fortunata (1st century AD) was a businesswoman known from the Roman city of Pompeii. She produced the popular seasoning garum, a fermented fish sauce.^[1]

Life and career

Few details of Umbricia Fortunata's life can be established with any certainty, however, she is known from three

She was an employee of Umbricius Scarus, a major producer of garum in Pompeii.^[4] Scaurus owned a number of workshops in Pompeii, run by employed managers, whose names and roles are identified in inscriptions found on urcei, vessels that contained the sauce. One of these workshops was managed by Umbricia Fortunata.^[5] She is an excellent example of a Roman woman entrusted to manage the business of another.

Umbricia Fortunata was possibly Scaurus's freedwoman. It has been established that Umbricius Scarus normally employed his freedmen to manage his workshops, and the cognomen Fortunata, considered as cognomen servile, also makes this likely.^[6] However, some scholars have pointed out that she may also have been the Pompeian producer's relative — possibly his wife or sister.^[7]

She is one of several businesswomen identified in ancient Pompeii, contributing to information about Roman businesswomen; other examples of Pompeii businesswomen mentioned alongside her are