Record number: CHEGM: 1999 6 69

Object name: inscribed tombstone

Description: Tombstone of cream-coloured sandstone, with splayed sides; the text is enclosed in an ansate panel broken at the margins.

Period: Roman

Place found: North Wall (West), Chester

Date: 3.1891

Material: stone

Dimensions: height 17 inches; width 34 inches; depth 26 inches

Inscription: D M / CASSIVS SECVN / DVS MISSVS HO / NESTA MISSIONE / VIX AN LXXX / VS CON
D(is) M(anibus) Cassius Secundus missus honesta missione vix(it) an(nos) lxxx [...]us con[iugi ...
To the departed spirits, Cassius Secundus, who was honourably discharged from military service, lived 80 years; ...us to her husband...
Secundus was obviously an old gentleman very proud of his years spent in the army. His epitaph makes a special point of mentioning his honourable discharge using the correct latin legal term. Eighty was a very great age in Roman times, perhaps the equivalent of someone being a hundred or more today. Latin