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Garden Hoe
(CIL VI.21715)

Epitaph in the wall of the porch of S. Giorgio in Velabro, Rome. Photo taken in 1998.

[A Latin inscription, including a small carving of what looks like a common garden hoe: there's a story about that part. It is a Roman tombstone in the church of S. Giorgio in Velabro, Rome.]

Transcribed and expanded:

1 5	Dis Manibus LVSIAE POLYBIAE FELIX · CONIVG · KARISSimae ET · LVSIA · MYSTICE SORORI · ET · LVSIVS HERMES · SORORIS · EIVS MARITVS · BENE · MERENti ET · SIBI · ET SVIS · POSTERISQue EORVMFECERVNt IN · Fronte · Pedes · X · IN · AGro · Pedes · X

Translated:

To the Shades of the Dead, in memory of Lusia Polybia:
Felix made (this) for his dearest wife;
as (did) Lusia Mystice,
(whose) sister (she was); as (did) also Lusius
Hermes, her sister's
husband: she was well-deserving of it.
Also for themselves and their family and their descendants.
10 feet across by 10 feet deep.

This is the tombstone of one person, not two or three. What is clear in case-inflected Latin, where the deceased is in the dative, has to be expanded slightly in English.

As for the garden hoe (since I mentioned it), which obviously has nothing to do with the inscription, or does it? here are the explanations, plus a good close-up of it. Yes, why settle for one explanation when you can have ten for the same price?

Images with borders lead to more information.
The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.)

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