A New Altar pro Salute from Verona

The dedication of a second or third-century altar pro salute recently discovered near Verona says that a Claudius Abascantus erected the monument for the safety of Tiberius Claudius Paulus, who was probably his patronus. It seems likely that Claudius Paulus was somehow related to two distinguished members of the Veronese elite, the senator Bellicius Sollers and his wife, Claudia Marcellina. Although it is impossible to know the exact circumstances in which Claudius Abascantus set up this altar, one can guess that he wanted to thank one or more deities for seeing his patronus through some difficult events. Such acts of devotion were part of the obsequium due to former masters, a custom to which many inscriptions dating to the second and third centuries CE seem to allude, both in Verona and other areas of northern Italy.