Vatican Museums

The text of the stele geographically identifies and legally qualifies an area intended for use as the social seat (schola) and place of worship (of the god Silvanus) for a free association (collegium) established to ensure a dignified funeral and protected tomb. The owner, Iulia Monime, and the members, under the guardian elected by her (Caius Memmius Orion), sell for the symbolic sum of a sestertius the land located in the agricultural area named Curtianus Talarchianus between the second and third mile of the Via Appia. The property, which may be accessed, will return to the possession of the donors when the association ceases to exist or upon its use for activities other than those listed (sacrifices, convivial meetings). In the rounded top there is a relief of Silvanus as a child with a pelt tied around his neck (lost along with the head), a small tree trunk and pinecone, positioned between a dog on the left and another animal (possibly a dog or a panther) on the right.