Funerary Portrait of Julia Capriola (complete monument) |
This elegantly carved marble cinerary altar for Julia Capriola, a freedwoman whose family was middle class but of some wealth, was found in Rome near the Porta Praesnestina. Below the epitaph she is portrayed in a niche reclining on a lectus with the symbolic funerary banquet before her on a small three-legged table, perhaps in anticipation of the customary cena novendialis. Having survived several pregnancies and lived into her thirties, she could be considered to have enjoyed the banquet of life. The details of her relaxed pose, barefoot with her sandals beneath her couch, and her distinctive features bespeak close observation of the living woman. Her hairstyle, severe expression, and stola are typical of a respectable matrona of the Trajanic period (98-117 CE; see also the Empress Plotina and a contemporary funerary portrait) . |
D[is] M[anibus] | |
IVLIAE CAPRIOLAE | |
V[ixit] A[nnis] XXXV M[ensibus] III D[iebus] XXV | |
T[itus] FLAVIVS | |
CHRYSIPPVS | |
CONIVG[i] CARISSIMAE | |
ET SANCTISSIMAE | |
FECIT ET SIBI ET | |
LIBERIS POSTERISQ[ue] | |
E O R V M |
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