Archaeological Museum of Bologna

The inscriptions on the monuments are for us the most precious testimony of the life and culture of the roman city. Bologna offers a particularly rich documentation, favored by a singular situation, the discovery of the so-called "Wall of the Rhine." The stelae recovered have provided valuable informations also for the social and economic history of the city in the first century AD.

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Great funeral stele, made of limestone, of the freedman and sevir Q. Valerius Restitutus. Still alive, erected the funeral monument for himself, for his wife and for Lucius Metellus Niceros.The structure has two columns on the sides with corinthian capitals, a pediment with Gorgon's face, and perhaps two corner acroteria in the shape of lions. There is a bass-relief in the lower part with an artisan may be an aurifex brattiarius, a jewellery maker, or a lanius, butcher. The second hypothesis is supported by the discovery of a boundary stone with the figure of a bull on the pediment and an inscription which indicates the same dimensions of the funerary area (20 x 20 roman feet).

Provenance: Bologna, "Reno's Wall"
Datation: first half of 1st century AD
Material: Limestone
Dimensions: height cm 189; width cm 68; depth cm 37,5
Bibliography: CIL XI, 6832
Inventory #: 19005