Tomb 97Isola Sacra Menu

Tomb 97 is detached on all sides. The original door is located on the north side, somewhat to the left of the centre. On the east side of the façade we find an inscription on a marble so-called "tabula ansata" surrounded by a beautiful cornice: 

DIIS MANIBVS
IVLIAE L(uci) F(iliae) APOLLONIAE MATRI PIISSIMAE
C(aius) ANNIVS PROCVLVS ET C(aius) NYMPHIDIVS OGVLNIANVS
FECERVNT ET SIBI LIBERTIS LIBERTABVS POSTERISQVE EORVM
IN FRONTE P(edes) XXV IN AGRO P(edes) XXV

According to the inscription this monument was made by Caius Annius Proculus and Caius Nymphidius Ogulnianus for their very pious mother, Iulia Apollonia, daughter of Lucius, and for themselves, their freed slaves, and the descendants.
The measurements of the area are 25 x 25 feet.

 

There is no inscription above the entrance of tomb 97. We see, however, a mark in the wall where probably an inscription was attached.
Alongside the façade and both side walls was a nice moulding. A part of the moulding can still be seen on the eastern wall of the tomb.
Tomb 97 is unique in this necropolis.
When we enter the grave via the door on the north side, we are standing in a roofed portico. This portico runs alongside the west and north side of the tomb and consists of three columns with two vaults in between. 

 

 

Via the porticus we enter an open space with a marble altar on a brick base in the centre.

Originally tomb 97 was used for cremation only. Inside the niches and on the ceiling traces of flower decoration and geometrical motifs can be seen. During a second period of use a new entrance was built next to the inscription on the eastern wall. The new entrance was constructed on a much higher level than the original one, and was probably accessible via a wooden staircase.

In the same period formae for inhumation were dug into the entire floor of the portico. It looks like the altar was part of tomb 97 already from the start.
The altar is richly decorated and has grooved columns with capitals, depicting horns of plenty, in top. Between the columns we see a frieze with a bush, a lion, a panther and two griffins. In the tympanum the deceased is depicted with a hairdress from the time of Trajan, the time in which tomb 97 was built. Therefore tomb 97 belongs to the oldest graves in this necropolis. The second period of use dates from the third century AD. On the altar we find the following text:

D(is) M(anibus)
IVLIAE L(uci) F(iliae)
APOLLONIAE
MATRI PIENTISSIMAE
C(aius) ANNIVS PROCVLVS
ET C9aius) NYMPHIDIVS
OGVLNIANVS

Caius Annius Proculus and Caius Nymphidius Ogulnianus have erected this altar for their very pious mother Iulia Apollonia, daughter of Lucius.

 

 

• 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).