Once part of a larger section, the rest of which is missing, this frieze depicts a ploughing scene. A pair of harnessed oxen, adorned with bands and triangular frontal plates, are being pulled by a figure dressed in a short toga and wearing a wreath. A second figure also dressed in a short toga follows behind, raising the blades of the plough with his left hand so as to leave the clods of earth unbroken.
With his right hand he signals to the rest of the group to hasten. To his right he is followed by a group of four men in togas, either magistrates or prominent members of the community. The scene is a reference to the ritual ploughing of the perimeter of a newly founded city, the sulcus primigenius.
The ritual traced the perimeter on which the defensive walls would be erected, stopping only where the city gates would be. The specific representation points to the likelihood that the the frieze once adorned one of the gates into Aquileia, or a public building in which the city’s founding – 181 BCE – was commemorated.