Tomb 13Isola Sacra Menu

Tomb 13, 14 and 15 are part of one facade. Originally they looked out over the Via Severiana. After the erection of tomb 12 the view towards the main street was cut off. The biclinium, which was probably in front of tomb 13 (comparable with tomb 15), had to disappear.
The only remaining trace is a moulding of 40 centimetres on a level with the doorstep, which continues up to tomb 14.
Above the entrance we see a marble slab with inscription.
The first part is missing:

[------------]
[Ros]CIA SELENE
FECIT SIBI ET M(arco) ROSCIO
SENTIANO FILIO ET
LIBERTIS LIBERTAB(usque) POSTER(is)Q(ue) EORVM
H(oc) M(onumentum) H(eredem) E(xterum)
N(on) S(equetur)

Roscia Selene has erected the tomb for herself and for her son Marcus Roscius Sentianus, for her freed slaves, and the descendants. Furthermore there was the regular phrase of the non-transferability of the tomb to a third party.

H(oc) M(onumentum) H(eredem) E(xternum) N(on) S(equetur).

 

 

The tomb was arranged for a mixed kind of funeral: arcosolia for sarcophagi in the lower parts of the walls and small niches for urns in the upper parts.
The tomb was richly decorated. In some of the niches we can still see painted flowers.
The larger central niches had a shell of stucco at the top.
Below the floor, which is not preserved, four formae have been found. These were placed diagonally against the back wall.
Tomb 13 can be dated to 150-160 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 Baldassare, Irene Bragantini, Chiara Morselli and Franc Taglietti - Necropoli di Porto, Isola Sacra (Roma 1996).