These wayside epitaphs must have left an impress on the mind and character of the Roman which we can scarcely appreciate.  The peasant read them as he trudged homeward on market days, the gentleman, as he drove to his villa on the countryside, and the traveller who came from the South, the East, or the North.  In them the history of his country was set forth in the achievements of her great men, her praetors and consuls, her generals who had conquered and her governors who had ruled Gaul, Spain, Africa, and Asia.  In them the public services, and the deeds of charity of the rich and powerful were recorded and the homely virtues and self-sacrifices of the humbler man and woman found expression there.  Check by jowl with the tomb of some great leader upon whom the people or the emperor had showered all the titles and honors in their power might stand the stone of the poor physician, Dionysius,[28] of whom it is said “to all the sick who came to him he gave his services free of charge; he set forth in his deeds what he taught in his precepts.”

But perhaps more of the inscriptions in verse, and with them we are here concerned, are in praise of women than of men.  They make clear to us the place which women held in Roman life, the state of society, and the feminine qualities which were held in most esteem.  The world which they portray is quite another from that of Ovid and Juvenal.  The common people still hold to the old standards of morality and duty.  The degeneracy of smart society has made little progress here.  The marriage tie is held sacred; the wife and husband, the parent and child are held close to each other in bonds of affection.  The virtues of women are those which Martinianus records on the stone of his wife Sofroniola:[29]

“Purity, loyalty, affection, a sense of duty, a yielding nature, and whatever qualities God has implanted in women.”

   (Castitas fides earitas pietas obsequium Et quaecumque deus faemenis
   inesse praecepit.)

Upon a stone near Turin,[30] Valerius wrote in memory of his wife the simple line: 

“Pure in heart, modest, of seemly bearing, discreet, noble-minded, and held in high esteem.”

   (Casta pudica decens sapiens Generosa probata.)

Only one discordant note is struck in this chorus of praise.  This fierce invective stands upon an altar at Rome:[31] “Here for all time has been set down in writing the shameful record of the freedwoman Acte, of poisoned mind, and treacherous, cunning, and hard-hearted.  Oh! for a nail, and a hempen rope to choke her, and flaming pitch to burn up her wicked heart.”