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Cast of Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus

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Cast of Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus

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Inscription on top:

[...]
[hic mo]derans plebem patriae sedemque se[natu]
[ur]bis perpetuas occidit ad lacrimas.
[nec l]icuit famulis domini gestare feretrum,
[c]ertantis populi sed fuit illud onus.
[fle]vit turba omnis, matres puerique senesque,
[fle]vit et abiectis tunc pius ordo togis.
[flere vide]bantur tunc et fastigia Romae,
[ipsaque tun]c gemitus edere tecta viae.
[cedite sublim]as spirantum cedite honores,
[celsus est culmen] mors quod huic tribuit.

Translated:
[...]
He fostered rivers of plenty, moderating the people to the benefit of the
native land and the senate house,
He died, to the perpetual tears of the city.
Nor was it permitted to the servants of the lord to carry the coffin
But that was the burden of the striving people.
All crowd wept - mothers and boys and old men,
And then the pious order [of senators] deposed their togas and wept.
Then the monuments seemed to weep,
And then the houses themselves along the way (seemed) to give forth sighs.
Grant the highest (honors) of those who live, grant honors;
Sublime is the height that death has let him reach.

Inscription along base of lid:

IVN(IVS) BASSVS V(IR) C(LARISSIMVS) QVI VIXIT XLII MEN(SIBVS) II IN IPSA PRAEFECTVRA VRBI NECFITVS IIT AD DEVM VIII KAL(ENDAS) SEPT(EMBRIS) EVSEBIO ET YPATIO CO(N)S(VLIBVS)

Junius Bassus, member of the senate, who lived 42 years and two months, joined God during the same Roman prefecture, being a neophyte on Septemeber 25 in the year of the consulate of Eusebio and Ypatio.

Vatican inv. 31648. Found under St. Peter's Basilica in about 1595. Dated 359 CE.
 

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Keywords: imperial portraiture, emperor, archaeology, iconography, ancient Rome