- Title
- The tomb of the Arruntii: sponsoring burial arrangements for slaves and freedmen: the 18th century drawings and the inscriptions
- Creator
- Lindsay, Hugh
- Relation
- Mediterranean Archaeology Vol. 24, p. 103-120
- Relation
- http://sydney.edu.au/arts/publications/meditarch/
- Publisher
- Meditarch
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2011
- Description
- The tomb of the Arruntii was discovered in 1733, soon after the spectacular finds on the Via Appia of the Monumentum Liviae and the nearby columbarium, attributed to the freedmen of Augustus. It was located in the garden of Francisco Belardo, between S. Vibiana (Bibiana), near Termini, and Porta Maggiore. Belardo was clearing the land for his vineyard and in the process demolished many sepulchral chambers, until the well connected antiquarian Francesco Ficoroni (1664–1747) intervened. On Sheet 24 of his comprehensive plan of the city, R. Lanciani notes that Belardo was also responsible for the removal of 6 arches from the adjacent aqueduct. The mausoleum of the Arruntii was not far from the ancient beginning of the Via Praenestina, on the right-hand side, but still inside Porta Maggiore. It was one of a small number of tombs from a Roman necropolis still intact in the 18th century. Nearby is the well known underground basilica, which possibly also had a funerary use—and elements of the stucco reliefs which decorate its vault have indeed affinities with the decoration of the Arruntian mausoleum. This area was outside the line of the Servian wall, beyond the Porta Esquilina, and thus satisfied traditional requirements that burials should not occur within the city. In Cicero’s time, there was still a pontifical law which forbade the location of graves in a public place because private rites could not be celebrated on public property.
- Subject
- tomb; Arruntii; burial; drawings; inscriptions
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1341276
- Identifier
- uon:28700
- Identifier
- ISSN:1030-8482
- Language
- eng
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