Canal tomb IIsola Sacra Menu

Tomb I leans for a large part against tomb H and has its façade towards the main street. The façade has been built up with inaccurate large brickwork and stretches of opus reticulatum.
The door has, like al the other tombs, jambs and an architrave of travertine. Next to the door is a square hole in the wall. The hole is divided by a small brick column, which changes it into two small windows.
On the left side, above the door, we find a brick relief of a hammer. To the left of the relief, framed in a triple cornice, was the following marble inscription, measuring 57 x 50 cms: 

D(is) M(anibus)
P(ublius) AELIVS MAXIMVS
FECIT SIBI ET VEIANIA
IOTAPE ET LIBERTIS LIBERTA
BVSQ(ue) POSTERISQ(ue) EORVM ITEM
L(ucio) GENVCIO AEPAPHRODITO ET
MARIAE DEVTERE ET POSTERISQ(ue)
EORVM CVBICVLVM HYPOGEVM EIS
DONATVM CONCESSOQ(ue) ITV AMBITV
TRASITVM PER PORTICVM AEIS A
P(ublio) AELIO MAXIMO

The inscription tells us that Publius Aelius Maximus has built this monument for himself and for Veiania Iotape, his freedmen and freedwomen, and the descendants; also for Lucius Genucius Epaphroditus and Maria Deutera and their descendant,s after a subterranean burial chamber has been given to them and the right to come and go and to walk under the portico has been permitted by Publius Aelius Maximus.

The door of tomb I gives access to tombs I, L, M, N, and O. When we enter tomb I, we find tomb L immediately on our right hand.
The entrance of tomb L was provided with jambs, a threshold and an architrave made of travertine, and was flanked by two small windows, both with a terracotta plate.
According to a marble plate with inscription above the door, tomb L belonged to Calpenius Hermes:

D(is) M(anibus)
C(aius) CALPENIVS HERMES FECIT SIBI ET SVIS
ET LIBERTIS LIBERTABVSQ(ue) POSTERISQ(ue) EORVM
ET ANTISTIAE COETONIDI CONIVGI SVAE
H(oc) M(onumentum) H(eredem) E(xterum) N(on) S(equetur)
CVBICVLVM INTRANTIBVS AD DEXTRAM ET
FORAS IN PAVIMENTO SARCOPHAGA ET CON
TRA ET LAEVA PARIETIBVS DVOBUS AEDICV
LAS CVM OLLIS ET SARCOPHAGIS FECIT

According to this inscription Caius Calpenius Hermes had built the monument for himself and his freedmen and freedwomen and the descendants and for his wife, Antistia Coetonis. The tomb could not be inherited by strangers. A resting place was made on the right side of the entrance and outside the tomb sarcophagi were placed under the floor, and in front of the entrance and on the left side in two walls aediculae have been made with urnes and sarcophagi. The inscription is from the time of Hadrian. Inside the tomb, on the right side, are two arcosolia with two niches above. In the right one was a shell of white stucco. A third small window was placed high in the back wall above a niche. To the left and right of the door three other niches, different in size, were grouped. Almost nothing of the painted stucco cornices which embellished the vault and the walls is left. The floor too was used as a burial place.
 Back to introduction Canal Tombs
  • Sources
  • Russel Meigs - Roman Ostia, At the Clarendon Press 1973
  • Guido Calza - Necropoli nell'Isola Sacra'(1940)
  • Dr. Jan Theo Bakker.

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