Vatican Museums

From the epitaph, which poses problems of legibility, we obtain – after the formula for the consecration of the tomb to the Manes gods in line 1 – the family name of the praetorian Valens, which seems to be Lacceius, extremely rare, but it is possible that the sequence LACCE instead means L(ucius) Acce(ius) (first name and family name). Buried in Rome by an unknown h(eres), “heir”, Valens was however of Greek origin – nati(one) Grae(cus) – and, more precisely, from the Cretan city of Axos. He enrolled in the naval forces and embarked on the Opis (divinity of fertility; theonyms are frequently used to name ships), a galley anchored in the port of Ravenna, and therefore belonging to the praetorian military fleet in the Adriatic Sea, clas(sis) pr(aetoriae) (R)a(ve)nn(atis). He died at the age of 36, after sixteen years of service.