A Marble Funerary Altar of Julia Sperata, Roman Imperial, circa 2nd half of the 2nd Century A.D.

carved in front with eleven lines of Latin inscription translating "To the Spirits of the Departed. Gaius Iulius Sabinianus, evocatus augusti, (had this made) for his most pious mother Julia Sperata, for her freedmen and freedwomen, and for their descendants," one side decorated in shallow relief with a patera, the other with an oinochoe, the pedimented lid with palmette acroteria in the corners and carved in front with a bird facing an overturned fruit basket, a shallow rectangular cavity on top of the altar under the removable lid for insertion of the cinerary urn.

from the necropolis outside the Porta Salaria in Rome, found in 1894 or shortly before in a vineyard adjacent to the grounds of the Villa Albani
French private collection, acquired in the 1950s/1970s

Edmond Le Blant, Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 4ème série, tome XXII, 1894, p. 417
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. VI, part 4, 1902, no. 32883
Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, vols. 142-144, 1909, p. 198
Lothar Wierschowski, Heer und Wirtschaft: das römische Heer der Prinzipatszeit als Wirtschaftsfaktor, Bonn, 1984, p. 71

As shown, surface slightly weathered, note abraded area on second line of inscription, large chip on one acroterion, on front of lid, and on lower left corner of altar proper, large chip across lower part of one edge of altar in back, all edges lightly chipped and abraded, nicks and scratches overall, smudges of black paint along frame; aligned holes on sides of lid and on altar sides near top are ancient and were meant for fastening of lead clamps.
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For funerary altars with similar decorative motifs on the lid see D. Boschung, Antike Grabaltäre aus den Nekropolen Roms, Bern, 1987, p. 18, Gc, and p. 396, Gc, nos. 402-406, all dated to the 2nd half of the 2nd Century A.D.