Description
This monument, made of Aurisina stone, was found in 2010 by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Veneto during excavations in vicolo Pastori, Padua. It can be dated between the Augustan Age (1st century) and the 2nd century A.D. It is made up of a 92-cm-high cylindrical altar and an inscribed plinth, both in a very good state of conservation. It was located along the ancient Via Annia.
The cylindrical altar was thought to cover the cinerary urn: it has a cavity in the lower part in which the remains were supposed to be placed. The decoration in relief is quite rich: in the upper area runs a Doric frieze; in the central one three garlands of flowers and fruit are laced with two satyr protomes and a female one; the lower area shows plant elements such as ivy branches among which a lizard is hidden. The style in which the different patterns are realized is richly detailed with distinct and detailed incisions inspired by Hellenistic funerary monuments.
The underneath base has been smoothed only on the three forward sides, while the back one is barely sketched, and this is a proof that this part was not visible. An untidy inscription runs across the front: the spaces between the letters are not always respected and some of them have a larger or smaller size than the others. The titulus is quite simple with the indication of the dedicator Attia Secunda for her husband Manius Cutius Philargurus. The man is a freedman and from the cognomen - the last name present - his Greek origin is clear. In the necropolis where this monument was found, graves belonging to foreigners - recognized both by onomastics and by the primary incineration rite, which is foreign to the Patavian ritual - are not uncommon. This suggests that this burial area was specifically intended for people who immigrated into the territory.
