The Effigies of Allia Potestas (CIL 6.37965 = CLE 1988)

Most scholarly discussions of the epitaph of Allia Potestas (CIL 6.37965 = CLE 1988) note the presence of five nail holes around its periphery by which it was affixed to the wall of a tomb. There is almost no mention, however, of the metal embedded in the center of the slab. It is 1.5 cm. tall, 2 cm. wide and protrudes visibly from the stone. The text is carefully laid out to accommodate it such that there is open space approximately 4.5 cm. tall and 2.5 cm. wide at the center of the inscription. This metal was described thusly: “al centro doveva essere un elemento decorativo metallico” (Evangelisti, 2012). I propose that what we see on the stone today could originally have been a base or post for a metal figurine in the form of a small bust representing Allia Potestas.

The patronus of Allia Potestas and writer of the epitaph references an effigies of her, presumably one kept at home, towards the end of the poem: “I keep an image in place of you (effigiem pro te teneo) as a solace to me | which we worship piously and many a garland is given; | whenever I will come to you, it will follow, coming along with me” (lines 42-44). It has been argued that two portable items mentioned in the poem, the effigies of Allia Potestas and a golden bracelet inscribed with her name, “can be related to recent socio-historical and archaeological explorations of the role of material culture in both memory and mourning” (Hope, 2011).

The actual presence of a representation of Allia Potestas on the epitaph would merge memory and mourning in several significant and effective ways. Romans frequently incorporated large statue busts of the deceased into their tomb monuments; this would be a miniature version of that same practice. This could also have played a role in Roman graveside ritual, providing a fixture from which garlands were hung at the tomb (Dolansky, 2011). Finally, it would add visual resonance to the emphasis in the poem on her physical beauty and the characterization of her as a goddess, which culminates in the warning–unusually worded at the very end–that she possesses divine power (numen habet).

There are several comparanda in both funerary and non funerary contexts. Some examples combine an epitaph and a head carved into the stone (CIL 6.26689, 6.10736, AE 1980, 150). An inscription concerning the vigiles shows small, bronze busts of the imperial family projecting from the top of the inscription (CIL 6.220). An elaborately decorated epitaph may have suffered similar loss of metal decoration, robbed out in antiquity (e.g. CIL 6.6028). A miniature, bronze depiction of the deceased would, admittedly, have been an unusual feature of a funerary inscription; but as part of the original, physical context of the epitaph it would have paralleled the unusual commemoration of Allia Potestas presented in the poem itself.