This section brings together a group of archaeological artefacts found around Monza.
These are tombstones, funerary monuments, votive altars and parts of monumental buildings datable to the long historical period that scholars define as ” Romanization”, a period that, for the geographical area north of the Po River, goes from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AC.
During this phase, the populations of Celtic origin that inhabited the territory were gradually assimilated into the Roman religion and customs, such as that of entrusting their family memory to sepulchral epigraphs.
Thanks to an epigraph carved into the granite of a votive altar dedicated to Hercules and displayed in the first room of the Museum, the ancient name of the people of Monza is handed down: Modiciates.
The artefacts displayed here form part of the archaeological collections of the Musei Civici: an initial nucleus of 19th-century finds was exhibited in the Museo Storico in Villa Reale; other finds supplemented the collection for the setting up of the Museo in Arengario, which was open from 1966 to 1983.
01: Fragment of a stele of the Sertoria family. Larian marble, 1st century AD.
02: Altar of the Modiciates. gneiss, 1st century AD.
03: Votive altar of Vibia Severa. gneiss, 1st century AD.
04: Stele of Caius Iulius Primigenius. gneiss, 1st century AD.
05: Funerary stele with robed character. Larian marble, 1st – 2nd century AD.