The writer of Claudia's epitaph
writer of an epitaph · Rome · 2nd century BC
The person who had a text cut on the tomb of a woman named Claudia at Rome in the second century BC. It may have been her husband or her son, but that is not known. All that is known of Claudia herself is what the stone says.
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2nd century BC · A gravestone from Rome that tells a woman's life in eight lines, in its old spelling.
Stranger, what I have to say is short; stop and read it through. Here is the unlovely tomb of a lovely woman. Her parents gave her the name Claudia. She loved her husband with her whole heart. She bore two sons. One of them she leaves on the earth, the other she laid beneath it. Her talk was charming, her step was graceful. She kept the house. She spun wool. I have spoken. Go on your way.
Hospes, quod deico paullum est, asta ac pellege.
Heic est sepulcrum hau pulcrum pulcrai feminae.
Nomen parentes nominarunt Claudiam.
Suom mareitum corde deilexit souo.
Gnatos duos creauit. Horum alterum
in terra linquit, alium sub terra locat.
Sermone lepido, tum autem incessu commodo.
Domum servavit. Lanam fecit. Dixi. Abei.Bücheler, Carmina Latina Epigraphica 52 (CLE 52)
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