Vatican Museums

Found in 1852 in Rome, near the Ponte Sisto, this lead tablet (fourth century) bears an inscription in verse: "What the people of Carnuntes offer to (these) lofty walls does not awe on account of gold or gemstones, but for the dedicatory inscription; indeed, that which gleams for the venerable name of Mandronius is admired more than the gift of the Hydaspes". The Hydaspes is an Indian river, often cited in poetic texts to indicate the Orient, as the region from which the sun is born and as a place of fabled treasures; the Christian character of the document is made explicit by the presence at the top of a Christological monogram, a combination of chi and rho, initials of the Greek name Christós.). It is not easy to interpret the inscription without knowing its context: it seems, however, to refer to a gift from the Carnuntes (or Carnutes, a Gallic people from the area of Lyon), dedicated perhaps to the interior of a building (the "lofty walls"), in honour of the unknown Mandronius, a personage of "venerable name".