On Piazza Fiume there is a statue of white marble in the little garden near the Aurelian Walls. It depicts a young man with a toga holding a scroll in his left hand. It is the funerary monument of Quintus Sulpicius Maximus, a poet dead when he was eleven, for studying too much for his love for the arts (the Muses). In 94 A.C. he participated in the third edition of a poetry competition with other fifty-two poets. His talent aroused wonder and admiration in his judges, and in his owners who disposed his liberation by legacy.
The poem that he wrote is transcribed in Greek language into the sides of the statue. The lower part of the statue is entirely reserved for inscription in Latin and Greek, wanted by his unhappy parents Quinto Euganeo and Licinia Ianuario.
For nearly two centuries, from 94 to 276 A.C. the statue remained in plain view on the place of burial. When the Emperor Aurelian had built new walls of Rome, the tomb disappeared into one of the two towers of the Porta Salaria. The monument came to light in 1871 when Porta Salaria was demolished for the expansion of the road. The original statue is on display at the Museum Montemartini in Via Ostiense, while on Piazza Fiume there is a copy.
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