The “Magistrate’s Sarcophagus”
Photogallery
The “Magistrate’s Sarcophagus”
Unearthed in Tuscania in 1818, reused and without a lid, at the church of St. Peter, possibly corresponding to the bastion of the ancient city.
The casket contained the remains of a magistrate who died at the age of 36. A long Etruscan inscription extending across two lines provides the name and genealogy, the civic and priestly offices he held, and his age: “Arnth, son of Laris and of Tanchvilus (=Tanaquilla) Peśli […] held the offices (tenthasa) of priest (eisnev), of purth and of magister = ‘commander’ (macstrev), doubled (zelarvenas) here (thui) when alive (zivas) the burial chamber (tamera), at 36 years (avils) dead (lupu)”.
The relief represents the deceased himself on a chariot, followed on foot by a scribe with a writing desk under his arm, and preceded by personages appropriate to his rank, two sergeants with toga exigua holding the fasces (insignia of the power of the magistrate formed of rods or skewers around an axe) and a figure dressed in a chiton and cloak with a lance, possibly a viator. The procession, in recalling the roles held in life by this illustrious personage, alludes at the same time to the journey into the afterlife.