The Roman woman who financed the public aqueduct

Epigraph dedicated to Gavia Massima

Another stone epigraph sketches for us the profile of a second Roman woman protagonist of her time: Gavia Massima. She was a noblewoman belonging to a family of winemakers who exported wine throughout the Mediterranean basin. In the stone embedded in the facade of a palace, at the beginning of Via Rosa, we read that the woman made a donation for the works of the public aqueduct of no less than 600,000 sesterces. This was a large sum, since a sestertius from that period is comparable to one euro today. The substantial testamentary bequest in favor of a fundamental work for the community confirms a more pronounced decision-making autonomy than the traditional role of the Roman matron and also a desire to increase the social prestige of her children.