A Roman bronze urn with epigram in sophisticated calligraphy, 1st - 2nd centuryUrn of exceptionally beautiful design. The conical base is beaded at the rim and widens somewhat like a funnel after the narrowest part. The egg-shaped body of the urn is soldered to this narrow base. A hollow groove above the shoulder, above which the lip of the rim, which is curved outwards and offset inwards to accommodate the lid. At the transition from the belly to the shoulder, two horizontally arranged handles with attachments in the form of openwork palmettes are soldered on opposite sides. The handles curving elegantly upwards, profiled in the centre by three vertical bulges and on the sides by three horizontal flutes. Two turning grooves running around at the lower edge of the handles. The lid on the top divided from the outside to the inside by a wide bead, a concavity and a slight central bulge, the height of which is marked by three concentric, deeply carved circles. In the centre, a vertical rectangular handle plate connected by a round pin to a disc under the lid. This device can be used to open or close a perforation on the side of the handle plate.The feeding of the dead was an integral part of the ancient culture of remembrance; at commemorative ceremonies the dead person was thought of and experienced as present, symbolically participating in the ceremony of the living at a funerary banquet through offerings of food or drink. The sealing mechanism could be interpreted as ensuring the immediate provision of the deceased with these offerings. Special attention should be paid to the evocative inscription on the shoulder of the urn, which aptly expresses the transience of all things in a two-line verse, known as an "elegiac distich": "QVANTVM EST IN VITA FAMAE VIRTVTIS HONORIS / ENAT QVAM PARVOS MORS REDIGIT CINERES.". A literal translation of the well-chosen words in Latin into English is cumbersome and only a freer paraphrase is able to lend fluency to the motto: "How much there is in life of glory, virtue and honour, is shown by how small a heap of ashes death makes of it.". The letters have been chiselled onto the outside of the urn, well-proportioned and precisely measured. Both the poet and the calligrapher demonstrated mastery of their craft in the execution.An eloquent document of Roman material and intellectual culture of great rarity. Surface with spotty patina with shades of green, blue and brown. Fragile areas due to mineralisation and minimal chipping in the lower third of the urn, expertly restored and stabilised from the inside. Height with lid 46 cm.Provenance: South German private collection, taken from the collection of his grandfather, who died 30 years ago.Condition: II -