Un itinerario religioso alle porte di Brixia: dal santuario di Mercurio in località Sant’Eufemia alle cave di Botticino

Starting from a reflection on the distribution of the dedications to Mercury discovered around Brescia, Author assumes the existence of a relationship between the cult of the god and the economic activities which made prosper the colony Augusta Civica Brixia. He refers in particular to the extractive ones, made in the marble quarries of Botticino or in the iron mines present in Val Trompia and Val Camonica. The presence, in the area of the quarries, of sacred and funerary dedications relating to the members of the senatorial order of Brixia, could suggest that, at least during the 2nd century AD, they received income from the extraction and the commerce of the extracted material, especially that of stone. Indeed, limestone from the mining district around Brixia was widely used in the city and exported elsewhere. His use is found in urban architecture and in epigraphy