Abstract:

This text corrects the provenance of one of the oldest inscriptions in Barcelona, which commemorates the construction of the urban wall by the duumvir quinquennale Caius Coelius. It has traditionally been related to a find in Montjuïc, and therefore considered a piece that should have been left in the workshop where it had been manufactured although in reality it comes from a piece of land in Avinyó Street. Next, the epigraphic document is compared with analogous documents from the Roman world while assessing the possibility that the original site, as well as having flanking towers on some gates, also had a few towers along the curtain. Finally, it is thought that the epigraph might have originally been placed on one of the urban gates, where it would have better fulfilled its commemorative function.