Vatican Museums

The friends Publius Aelius Aurelius and Julius Maximus arranged for this tomb to be constructed, consecrating it to the Manes gods (line 1), for their thirty-five year-old fellow soldier Publius Aelius Avitus, a native of the city of Traianopolis (founded by the Emperor Trajan after 107) in ancient Thrace (Bulgaria – see also the formula nat(ione) Thrax, “Thracian by birth”) who died in Rome after 15 years of military service. At the time of his death he was the bugler (tùbicen) of the imperial military select cavalry corps (equites singulares Augusti), in the squadron (turma) commanded by Aelius Lucanus. Maximus was a soldier too: decurio secundus, second officer in charge of a cavalry squadron; the other dedicant defines himself as a simple “heir”. The first two names (first name Publius, family name Aelius) of Avitus lead to the assumption that he was enlisted at the age of 20 under Hadrian’s rule (117-138 A.D.).