Sarcophagus of the Aurelii, second quarter of the third century CE.

Voghenza (Fe)

Civic Lapidary, inv. RA782

This monument is considered a masterpiece among the architectural sarcophagi made in Ravenna in the 3rd century AD, distributed by river to the southern limits of the Veneto region. It is of extraordinary dimensions and has an architectural aedicule structure on the casket that frames the inscription and figures of the deceased, whose portraits are reproduced in the angular acroteria of the lid. Their identities are revealed by the epigraph: they are in fact the former non-commissioned officer Marcus Aurelius Marinus, shown on the right, and his wife Aurelia Eutichia. Both are rendered with great realism: the woman wears a knotted shawl on her shoulders and has hair that was very common in the third century AD. The sides of the chest are also richly decorated with a scene of dextrarum iunctio on the right and figures of heroes on the left, while the sides of the lid feature Gorgon heads.

The sarcophagus was discovered in 1711 in Voghiera and is one of the very first testimonies from the Roman site of Voghenza. It was transported to Ferrara in 1739 to be initially placed in the lapidary of Palazzo Paradiso.

Epigraph transcription and translation:

D(is) M(anibus) / Aur(elia) Eutychia / sibi et M(arco) Aurelius / Marin(o), n(atione) Syr(o) veter(ano) /ex opt(ion) patr(ono) et marit(o) / pientiss(imo) cum(quo) v(ixit) a(nnis) / (quadraginta tribus) ben(e) m(erenti) viv(a) pos(uit) / iub(ente) patron ex pec(unia) ipsius / Hanc arc(am) si q(uis) post exc(essum) utro / rumq(ue) ap(eruerit) inf(eret) (sestertium) (quiquaginta) m(ilia) n(ummun) fisco

To the Mani gods, Aurelia eutychia, herself and Marcus Aurelius Marinus, born in Syria, veteran graduated patron and very pious husband with whom she lived 43 years, whom she had well deserved, she placed while alive (the monument), according to the will and with the patron’s money. If anyone, after the death of both of them, shall have opened this sarcophagus, let him pay to the treasury (a penalty) of 50,000 sesterces