Slab with epitaph to an imperial agent

Photogallery

Slab with epitaph to an imperial agent
Slab with epitaph to an imperial agent
Section XVII. Christian inscriptions with consular dating

The inscription, now mutilated, marked the tomb of a young man, possibly twenty years of age, whose name is almost entirely lost. His death constituted an unicus parentibus dolor, “an incomparable grief for parents”, who dedicated the tomb to him. During his lifetime the deceased was an agens in rebus – “agent in special missions”, or rather a member of the military corps of the imperial couriers, who performed functions of control and information gathering, as well as special missions, regarded by the people almost as the emperor’s “secret agents”. Therefore he is also described as a vir devotus, a “devout man”, an honorary title that was assigned to holders of positions of imperial confidence from around the second half of the fourth century. The text concludes with the date of death/burial, introduced by dep(ositus), “deposed”: 13 January of the year 454, or less likely 525, the year following that of the consulate (post consulatum) of Flavius Opilio (of whom two are known).