Marble of Thorigny

The Marble of Thorigny is the base of a sandstone statue (not marble) discovered in Vieux (not in Thorigny), located in the Calvados department of Normandy. The inscriptions carved on it describe the political career of a high-ranking Gallo-Roman figure, Titus Sennius Sollemnis, "one of the few notable individuals known in the Armorican part of Gallia Lugdunensis," according to Pascal Vipard. The decision to erect the monument was made by the members of the Council of the Gauls in Lugdunum. The inscriptions on the marble represent "the most extensive text the Council ever had engraved for one of its members."

This stone, said by an unreliable tradition to have been discovered in 1580, but more plausibly found in the 17th century, is the most important epigraphic document from Normandy. The monument, transported to the present-day Manche department, was kept at the Château des Matignon, then moved to Saint-Lô, where it was severely damaged during the bombings that destroyed the town in 1944. Transferred to the University of Caen in the 1950s, it returned to Saint-Lô at the end of the 1980s.

Henri Van Effenterre described it as "one of the most beautiful and curious inscriptions of Roman Gaul." The monument's fame is due to the work of Hans-Georg Pflaum in the mid-20th century, following many earlier studies, particularly since the 19th century. The exceptional nature of the Marble of Thorigny provides insight into the life of elites in Gaul during the Roman Empire, from legal and social perspectives, as well as the troubled political circumstances of the 3rd century.

Reproduced by casting several times throughout its history, the original pedestal has been classified as a historic object since June 6, 1922.