Some strange engravings on three stones of the old Roman wall that runs parallel to Sots-Tinent Navarro street represent the members of an ancient collective known as the Augustal seviros. The stones belonged to some type of funerary monument that was dismantled to use them in the construction of the second wall, reinforcement of the one from the 1st century, which is what we can admire today in some areas of the Gòtic neighborhood with its characteristic defense towers.
The engravings are located between the towers numbered 23 and 25. Normally, they are hidden behind the vegetation found in the moat, but in recent weeks they have been better observed as a result of the loss of plant density due to the drought. . In one of them, the silhouette of a bust can be seen without much detail in the drawing. In another second, you can see the legs and the bottom of a scepter. In the third, only the end of another scepter.
According to archaeologists, these are figures that represent an Augustal seviro. It is an organization formed between the 1st and 3rd centuries by freedmen, former slaves who had become rich and occupied a relevant status in Roman cities. The Seviri were dedicated to the cult of the emperor and prospered in the Latin-speaking western half of the empire. Holding this distinction gave notoriety and ease of social climbing.
Archaeologists conclude that the three stones on which the engravings are found must have been part of an ancient monument and were reused for the construction of the second wall built in the 4th century on the original one from the 1st century. A previous attack or a significant threat led the inhabitants of Barcino to urgently build this second defensive wall, which also had 76 towers distributed throughout the perimeter.
The rush even forced them to use all available materials, including monuments. For this reason, it is common to see stones on the wall with moldings and objects engraved on them, such as those of the seviros of Sots-Tinent Navarro.
