Tomb 96Isola Sacra Menu

In front of tomb 97 lies the semicircular tomb "a cassone" 96. The small grave lies transverse to the street and has an inscription on a marble slab of 32 x 26 cms on the short side, facing the street: 

D(is) M(anibus)
ZOSIMES QVAE VIX(it)
ANNIS VIII MENS(ibus)
VII DIEB(us) XVI AELI
A HEROIS ET MA
TERNVS AUG(usti) LIB(ertus)
TABELL(arius) ALVMNAE
CARISSIMAE
FECERVNT

Aelia Herois and Maternus, freedman of the Emperor and his notary¹, have made this for their beloved pupil, Zosime, who lived eight years, seven months and sixteen days.
Tomb 96 dates back to 150-200 AD.

• 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).
  
  
• Notes
• 1: The term "ALUMNA CARISSIMA" was used for a child raised by several persons. One of them was the freedman Maternus, who had the function of tabellarius, a kind of postman - I. Baldassarre, I. Bragantini, Ch. Morselli en F. Taglietti: Necropoli di Porto (1996).