This small square stone, set apart in this little corner of the Old Town, is a Roman sacrificial altar. It is from the first or second century after Christ, and it has a short inscription on its face. It contains a name: Vinicia Pavlina. We do not know exactly who Vinicia Pavlina was. We can guess from the name. Vinicia is a Roman family name, and Pavlina is the feminine form of Paulinus. So she was a woman, almost certainly from a respectable Roman household, possibly the wife or daughter of a local Roman administrator. The carving is careful, and the letters are neat, which suggests the family could afford a competent stonemason. The altar appears to have been used for wine sacrifices. This was a daily Roman religious practice. The Romans regularly used wine in their rituals through a practice called a libation. This involved pouring a small amount of wine onto an altar or onto the ground as an offering. It was usually done at the beginning of a ceremony, whether in a public temple or in a private home. Now, you might wonder, why use wine? That’s because it was important to the Romans, as they saw it as a pure and valuable substance. Hence, offering wine was a way to show respect to the gods and ask for their protection or blessing. Sometimes the wine was mixed with water or incense, and when poured onto a heated altar, the rising aroma was believed to carry the prayer to the gods. So somewhere in this town, in the first or second century, Vinicia Pavlina poured wine on this stone, probably regularly, possibly daily, asking the gods for protection of her family. It was a private gesture in a private home. I find this stop quietly moving. The town is full of grand monuments and famous saints and political martyrs, and rightly so. But this is just one woman, by name, who lived here long ago, whose family is forgotten, but her name is still here. Of all the millions of Romans who must have walked through this town, Vinicia Pavlina is the one we can still say hello to. And once again, this is here because of the earthquake. The altar was discovered when the surrounding buildings came down. It had been hiding in plain sight, possibly used as a doorstep or a cornerstone, for hundreds of years before that. Follow the map to a stone building with a small museum sign by the door. That is our next stop.