Tomb 53Isola Sacra Menu

Tomb 53 is also a tomb "a cassone". This small grave has, however, a brick wall with a triangular upper part on the front side.
On this wall, above a small entrance, a marble slab has been attached with the following inscription:

D(is) M(anibus)
M(arco) VALERIO FORTV
NATO SER(---) IANVARIA
MATER FIL(io) PIE(ntissimo) SVO FE
CIT SIBI S(uis) VIX(it) ANNIS III
MES(ibus) VIII D(iebus) XXV IN F(ronte) P(edes) X (in) A(gro) P(edes) X

Tomb 53 was, according to the text, erected for her devout son Marcus Valerius Fortunatus by his mother Sergia Ianuaria, but also for herself and hers. The son died at the age of three years, eight months and twenty-five days. The measurements of the area are 10 x 10 feet.

Tomb 53 dates from the time of Hadrian or Antoninus Pius.

• 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:According to the inscription,the measurements of the little grave should be 10 x 10 feet. Tomb 53, however, is much smaller and there is no evidence that it once was bigger. Calza mentioned that the inscription was found “in situ”. Thylander informs us that in 1950 it was attached to another wall together with some other inscriptions. One may ask himself wheter the inscription belongs to tomb 53 or not (note author). On the back-side of the slab they started to write the same text. Obvious for some reason they stopped writing: DIS M M VALERIO FO - Guido Calza: Necropoli Nell’Isola Sacra 1940, Thylander: Inscription du port d’Ostie