Sunday, March 27, 2011

Lucius and Servilia

Among the vast horde of treasures from Pompeii in the Archaeological Museum of Naples are hundreds of fragments of ancient Latin inscriptions. Just recently two British researchers discovered, from perusing photographs, that some of those fragments can reassembled to form a nearly complete tombstone with this message:
Lucius Catilius Pamphilus, freedman of Lucius, member of the Collinian tribe, for his wife Servilia, in a loving spirit.
The museum has now put the puzzle back together, and thus husband and wife are reunited after centuries apart.

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