KM 930: Marble plaque with funerary inscription.

This Latin inscription, of a type commonly found in columbaria, can be translated as: "To the gods of the netherworld, to Julia Chrestes, Junius Phoebion for his wife well deserving it he made it." This stele is broken at the bottom, so it is impossible to determine whether the inscription ended here. The Romans often had very elaborate stories engraved on tombstones to warn travelers of dangers, to commemorate the dead, or just to flaunt the accomplishments of the deceased.

Note the red paint that remains in the crevices of the epitaph's lettering; this common practice made the lettering more visible. A thin line of cement runs approximately one and a half inches from the face (around the side) of the stele, suggesting that this inscription was probably embedded in a wall at one time--either in a columbarium or displayed as a work of art in a later construction.

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