Do not violate this sacred place!

In the last two lines, the stone speaks directly to the reader. ITA TIBI CONTINGAT QUOD VIS UT HOC SACRUM NON VIOLES: "So may you befall whatever you wish, as long as you do not violate this sacred place."

Roman tombstones often speak to their readers, telling them to keep at bay or to respect the grave. Instead of threatening or cursing potential robbers, this stone wishes the reader good fortune, as long as they leave the grave alone.

There is a great variation in such phrases. An almost identical one was found on another tombstone from Carthage. Did the stonemason have a collection of phrases from which relatives could choose? Or were they inspired by what they had read on the tombstones of others? Often, texts on tombstones had a certain meter (rhythm), like poems. This inscription seems to be prose, but Buecheler, a German classicist from the 19th century, suspected the last two lines to have a quasi-iambic structure. See F. Buechler, 1985, Carmina Latina epigraphica, Leipzig, p.95