“To Bautus and Maxima. They made this during their lifetime.”
Fig. 37.—Carpenter’s Tools.
On another slab is a figure, probably of a vine-dresser, in a short Roman tunic, standing near a wine cask, the symbol of his occupation. He appears to be starting to the field with his mattock on his shoulder, and in his hand is a wallet containing, perhaps, the provision for the day.
GAVDENTIO FECERVM FRATRI
QVI VICSIC ANNIS XXVIII · M · VIII · D · XVII
“To Gaudentius. His brothers made this. He lived twenty-eight years, eight months, seventeen days.”
Fig. 38.—A Vine-Dresser’s Tomb.
In the Catacomb of St. Agnes is a fresco of husbandmen carrying a wine butt on their shoulders, the meaning of which is probably the same. Mr. Hemans rather fantastically interprets this symbol as implying concord, or the union of the faithful bound together by sacred ties, as the staves of the cask are by its hoops.[362] Maitland translates it as standing for a proper name. We have seen examples representing fossors at work,[363] and Fabretti figures the slab of a sculptor, exhibiting the manufacture of sarcophagi. Other examples occur, in which