Marble funerary plaque, Rome, mid-1st century BCE CIL 1.2.1222
Despite the length of this damaged inscription, it offers little information about the historical presence of the young woman to whom it was dedicated, beyond evoking the sorrow her death caused. It is not clear whether she was named Nymphe, a Greek name, or whether the term was intended to describe her youthful, unmarried state at her death, as with the word puella. Nor is it clear who the loving dedicator was and what his relationship was to the dead girl. It is generally assumed from internal evidence that he was her father, but the text does not exclude the possibility that he was her betrothed. Furthermore, the lack of filiation and her burial in a communal site suggest that she may have been a slave or a member of the lower classes attached to a wealthy family. Shaped as a tabula ansata, her marble burial plaque, dated to the period of Cicero and Caesar, once closed a niche that held a cinerary urn containing her cremated remains; it was found in a columbarium in Rome, near the modern Porta Maggiore. The inscription is carved in small capital letters, the words separated by interpuncts (medial dots), the spelling and grammar reflecting colloquial speech; punctuation has been added to assist interpretation. The length of the inscription and the poetic text, as well as the good quality of the stone and its size, testify to the dedicator's wealth as well as his desire to leave a worthy memorial. The meter is an attempt at elegiac couplets.
SEI ˑ QVIS ˑ HAVET ˑ NOSTRO ˑ CONFERRE ˑ DOLORE[m],
ADSIT, ˑ NEC ˑPARVEIS ˑ FLEREQVE ˑ AD ˑ LACHRYMIS.
QVAM ˑ COLVIT, ˑ DVLCI ˑ GAVISVS ˑ AMORE, ˑ PVELLA[m]
[hic locat] INFELIX, ˑ VNICA ˑ QVEI ˑ FVERAT
5 [dum contracta sinunt] FATORVM ˑ TEMPORA. ˑ NVMPHE,
[nunc erept]AˑDOMV, ˑ CARA ˑ SVEIS, ˑ TEGITVR.
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