Funerary stele of Mavarta

The slab was found in 1881 by Gaetano Chierici, during an archaeological excavation in S. Ilario d'Enza, along the Via Emilia. Together with another fragment of a Roman slab, it had been reused as a cover for a tomb, in which were two individuals accompanied by grave goods.
The analysis of the finds dates the burial at the end of the VI-early 7th century A.D.; the name of Boetius could refer to two consuls, in office in the year 487 or 510 A.D. respectively.
The inscription reads: “M(emoriae) b(onae) / In hoc loco / requiescet / in pace fidelis / Mavarta que vix/it annus XXVI rec/essit in pace fidelis / sub die kalendas Iulias / Boetio consule” (“To the good memory. In this place rests in peace Mavarta, who lived twenty-six years. She disappeared in peace, before the Kalends of July, during the consulate of Boethius ”).