Ara (altar) of Metellia family

Altar-type funerary stone of gens Metellia. Found in San Maurizio area (Reggio Emilia). In the front there is a low-relief with a soldier dressed with tunic and paenula, holding the pilum in his right hand and putting the left one on the shield, leaning on the ground. The stone is dedicated by two brothers, Floro Metellio and Florentino, to the deceased members of their family: Caio Metellio Constante, the father; Ebuzia Priscilla, the mother and Caio Metellio Florino, their brother. The commemorating inscription is also intended for a person, Vibo Eufemo, which is not a member of the Metellia family, but is probably a freedman of Greek origin.
The inscription reads: “D(is) M(anibus) / C(aio) Metellio C(ai) f(ilio) / Constanti veter(ano) Aug(usti) / et Aebutiae M(arci) f(iliae) Priscillae matri / et C(aio) Metellio C(ai) f(ilio) Florino fratri / mil(iti) coh(ortis) XII urb(anae) / qui vixit ann(is) XXII / diebus XIII et / Vibio Euphemo
Metelli Florus / et Florentinus / p(arentibus) / b(ene) m(erentibus)” (“To the spirits of the dead. To Caius Metellius Constans, son of Caius, veteran of Augustus, and to his mother Ebutia Priscilla, daughter of Marcus, and to his brother Caius Metellius Fiorinus, soldier of the XII urban cohort, who lived twenty-two years and thirteen days, and to Vibius Eufemus. Metellius Florus and Florentinus [dedicated this] to the parents who well deserved”).