Statue of Eumachia, 1st century CE
Despite her sex and humble ancestry, Eumachia became one of the most prominent citizens of the city of Pompeii. Having inherited a considerable fortune from her father, Lucius Eumachius, who became wealthy through his brick manufactory, Eumachia married into one of Pompeii's oldest families, the Numistrii Frontones. Her money and new social position enabled her to assume the important public office of priestess and become a patron of the town's corporation of fullers, the dyers and clothing cleaners. One of Eumachia's benefactions was an impressive building on one side of the Forum in Pompeii, which she and Marcus Numistrius Fronto, her son, dedicated to Concordia Augusta and Pietas. If this building was erected when Numistrius was running for the office of duumvir for the year 2/3 CE, this benefaction was perhaps intended to help gain public support for his election. The function of the building is unknown; it may have served as a warehouse for the wool and fulling trade or as an auction house. Its doorway is particularly elegant, faced with fine white marble carved in acanthus leaves reminiscent of the floral panels of the Ara Pacis Augustae in Rome. The excellence of the sculpture and the building's resonance with themes of Augustan ideology suggest that the panels were carved in Rome. Zanker (p. 97, see Bibliography) suggests Eumachia may have been emulating the example of the empress Livia and her son Tiberius, who built the Porticus Liviae in Rome and dedicated it to Concordia Augusta in 7 BCE. See Patrons and Plancia Magna, Aurelia Paulina, and Regilla for other prominent female donors.
EVMACHIA L[uci] F[ilia] SACERD[os] PVBL[ica] NOMINE SVO ET
M[arci] NVMISTRI FRONTONIS FILII CHALCIDICVM CRYPTAM PORTICVS CONCORDIAE
AVGVSTAE PIETATI SVA PEQVNIA FECIT EADEMQVE DEDICAVIT
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