Vatican Museums

This dedication was made by the homonymous pupil of L. Aurelius Apolaustus Memphius Senior, a freedman of Lucius Verus (161-169 d. C.) and Marcus Aurelius (161-180 d. C.), also known from literary sources and from inscriptions dedicated to him in other cities in Italy. The dedicator was famous both for his art of the pantomimus (the same as that practiced by the honoured, line 1), and for his relationship with the two emperors, which led the cities to compete to honour him in order to obtain favours from him or, through his agency, from the emperors themselves. Born in Syria, Agrippus (his original name) was nicknamed (line 6) Memphius (after the Syrian city) by Verus during the war against the Parthians, and brought by him to Rome as a trophy of war. There he received the ‘working’ name Apolaustus (“which you can enjoy”). He would have been put to death in 189 A.D. by the emperor Commodus, still cited here (line 5) as Caesar, or rather as the designated successor of the emperor.