Tomb 88Isola Sacra Menu

 

The enclosure and the burial chamber of tomb 88 were built at the same time. Originally tomb 88 was detached and facing the seaside.
The open space at the southern side (now tomb 89) was shared with tomb 90.  Furthermore there were a oven and a well, probably for common use with tomb 90. The entrance of tomb 88 came also out on this open field on which several small tombs had been built earlier.
A bench was running alongside the entrance wall of tomb 88. 
Above the entrance of the enclosure one can only see the place were once an inscription was attached. However, there is still an inscription above the entrance of the burial chamber (the western wall). On a marble slab of 36 x 37 cms we can read the following message:

IVLIAE C(ai) F(iliae) QVINTAE ET
M(arco) ANTONIO HERMETI
FILI PARENTIBVS
PIISSIMIS

The children have erected this monument for Iulia Quinta, daughter of Caius, and Marcus Antonius Hermes, their very pious parents.

The burial chamber was built for a mixed form of burial, both cremation and inhumation.
The walls have a central aedicula flanked by small niches. The lower part of the wall is used for arcosolia. The one in the left wall was richly decorated with a coloured mosaic. The mosaic is divided into two parts. The bigger one shows the deceased laying at a funeral banquet, flanked by two birds (inv. nr. 10126). On the second part we see pieces of an inscription (inv. nr. 10899).
The floor was made of mosaic. 

 

A series of graves for inhumation, located on the right side of the back wall, testifies to a reorganization in later time. The enclosure had central niches surrounded by smaller ones.
Another, second phase of reuse can be noticed next to the entrance. Here a small arcosolium has been built underneath a bench. This grave had the following inscription which cannot be seen anymore:

 

DIIS MANIBVS
M(arco) ANTONIO M(arci) F(ilio) ANTONINO VIXIT
ANN(is) VIII M(ensibus) VII D(iebus) XVII
M(arcus) ANTONIVS ZOSIMVS FIL(io) PIISSIMO
LOCO DONATO AB OPTIMIS PATRONIS FECIT

The grave was built by Marcus Antonius Zosimus for his most pious son, Marcus Antonius Antoninus, who lived 8 years, 7 months and 17 days. The location of the grave was donated by patrons, the original builders of the tomb.

 

• Sources
• Russel Meigs - Roman Ostia, At the Clarendon Press 1973
• Guido Calza - Necropoli nell'Isola Sacra'(1940)
• Dr. Jan Theo Bakker.
• Hilding Thylander - Inscriptions du port d'Ostie (Lund C W K Gleerup 1952).
• Ida Baldassarre, Irene Bragantini, Chiara Morselli and Franc Taglietti - Necropoli di Porto, Isola Sacra (Roma 1996).