The Beremend bronze plaque

In 1901 a bronze plaque with an engraved Latin inscription in verse commemorating Valerius Dalmatius was discovered during agricultural work in the Ida manor of Beremend, near the late Roman luxury villa of Nagyharsány. The distant province of Gallia Lugdunensis Tertia had a statue erected in honour of its former governor in Pannonia. On the pedestal of the statue the bronze plaque proclaimed the virtues of Valerius as follows:

“For  Dalmatius the law, which nourishing faith provides, is to restore justness to Justice and to protect even-handedness. Two times six volumes (scripta) the learned man holds, every volume of the praetor and the ones laid down by the holy emperors. The same man is interpreter of the laws and the laws' servant; he both understands them carefully and applies them well. For your many merits, Valerius, most just judge, for your many merits, this portrait stands here for you. We who have set it up bear witness to the public vows we have been making for a long time, we send it from afar into the bosom of your homeland. For this man we beseech the highest honours of the prefecture, rejoicing we pursue you with this omen. Whoever wants to know by whose love you are adored, can take the knowledge from this inscription: The province Lugdunensis Tertia set [this] up, a grateful client to her patron.”

Translation: Last Statues of Antiquity Database no. 378