46Emperor Claudius Augustus' milestone

A Roman milestone, unearthed by a flood of the ‘Rio di Tel’, was found in 1552 near the Supphof farm in Rablà (now the Hanswirt restaurant). The Romans had built this important monument on the Via Claudia Augusta, a main road crossing the Alps through the Vinschgau. It is now on display in Bolzano’s Civic Museum.

The milestone is particularly valuable for his age, being far older than that of other milestones found in South Tyrol. Whoever carved the inscription at the orders of Emperor Claudius Augustus at the time of the road’s enlargement, must have still had a vivid recollection of Drusus, his expedition against the Reti in the year 15 B.C. and the realization of the first road in this land.

The inscription on the milestone in classical Latin reads like: "Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Pontifex Maximus, endowed for six times with the tribunicia potestas, consul for the fourth time, eleven times Emperor, father of the country, has enlarged the Via Claudia Augusta, which his father Drusus had traced from the Po to the Danube for a length of 350 miles, after conquering the Alps in war."

The milestone is therefore not merely a common one, but rather a monument in honor of the Emperor, placed on a very important border crossing section of the Via Claudia Augusta. Another Roman milestone built with Lasa’s marble exists on a private property in Nauders.