Funerary monument to Claudia Toreuma

myminifactory

The inscription reads:\r\nClaidia[e] /Ti(beri) Augusti l(ibertae) /Toreumae / annor(um) XVIIIHac ego bis denos nondum / matura per annos / condor humo multisnota / Toreuma iocis / exiguo vitae spatio feliciter / acto / effugi crimenlonga senecta / tuum.\r\nTo Claudia Toreuma of Tiberio Claudio Augusto, of nineteen years. I, Toreuma, known for my many games before I turned twenty, is buried by this land. Happily passed this short period of life, I have escaped your insult, long old age.\r\nThe monument, a masterpiece of elegance, is among the most famous found in Padua, and features a marble cippus decorated with delicate acanthus leaves and flowering stems, teeming with small animals: three little birds in a nest eagerly await food that two other birds catch by swooping down on a dragonfly. Above, under the dedication to the gods, a beautiful scroll holds the name, condition, and age of the deceased. The lower part of the cippus bears an evocative verse inscription, rich with poetic allusions known in ancient culture, which often viewed death at a young age as preferable to a long life of suffering.\r\nThis monument serves as a poignant reminder of Toreuma, a talented juggler and mime who was a child prodigy and the freedom of Emperor Tiberius. She grew up under Caligula's rule and died during Claudius' reign. Her ashes are preserved in a glass urn placed inside a cylindrical limestone cyst closed by a metal lid with two grapples, likely stored within a pedestal beneath the cippus.\r\nThe trachyte base was prepared in 1821 as a tribute to the important discovery made that year.