Vatican Museums

It is not unusual the presence of statues of gods, the object of private worship, in the homes of members of the Roman ruling class, as in the case of Gallus, an ordinary consul who has not been clearly identified but was perhaps the Severus Gallus of the year 298, who probably possessed the replica of an original by the Greek sculpture Euphranor (or attributed to him), who lived in the fourth century B.C. The poetic couplet (hexameter and pentameter) engraved on the slab, which accompanied the work of art and which were possibly written by Gallus himself, read: “Euphranor had sculpted (this) Bacchus, whom Gallus, inscribed in the register of consuls, honours with poetic verses, incense and sacrifices”. The inscription is graphically poor and misspelt (Eufranor).