A 2000 years old love story
Love stories are ageless and show the beauty of human nature. This is the story of Fabius Maianus a regular citizen of a former Roman city in Germany who lived between the 2 nd and 3 rd century AD. His story is written in stone engraved on the sarcophagus of his wife, Valeria which was found near Pavia in Italy close to the city of Milano.
The inscription describes the story of Fabius and Valeria and their affectionate and loving marriage. Unfortunately, their marriage lasted approximately 10 years because Valeria died at the age of 27 in Italy . Their love was so strong that Fabius travelled 600 miles to bring his beloved wife to Pavia which was their homeland. Doing a 600 mile journey in that period of time was a huge task that few would do. Such an action shows the depths of love that Fabius had for his wife.
Fabius wasn’t a wealthy person according to the researcher Ugo Venturoli, he probably didn’t belong to the military class or the upper class. Such a trip would have cost a lot and taken weeks for him to travel, which means that he probably sacrificed a lot in order to do it. This also wouldn’t have been an easy trip, he would have had to go through the Alps, through unsettled regions and face many other obstacles on his way.
This love story shows that deep inside, humans have a good heart and with an effort to bring this part of us to the surface, the world’s state would be different.
By John Black