Fig. 244.—Cinerary urn in lead case.
The last monument consists of a walled enclosure, with a table and couches of masonry like those often found in the gardens of private houses ([Fig. 245]). In front of the table is a small round altar for libations. This was a place for banquets in honor of the dead, triclinium funebre; a tomb designed to serve the convenience of the living, like the niche of Cerrinius Restitutus and the benches of Veius and Mamia. The walls were painted in the last style.
Over the entrance in front we read: Cn. Vibrio Q. f. Fal. Saturnino Callistus lib.,—'To the memory of Gnaeus Vibrius Saturninus son of Quintus, of the tribe Falerna; erected by his freedman Callistus.' As Saturninus did not belong to the tribe Menenia, he was very likely not a native of Pompeii. His ashes were probably placed in an urn and buried in the earth between the altar and the entrance.
There is every reason to suppose that the series of tombs on the south side of the highway is continued beyond the villa of Diomedes; but it has not yet been found possible to carry the excavations further in that direction.
The tombs of the fourth group present no new types of design or construction. Several of them are of interest, however, on account of peculiarities of arrangement. At the time of the eruption two of the monuments (33, 35) were in process of building; it is impossible to tell what form they were to have. A third (36) had been commenced on a large scale, but apparently the money of the heirs gave out, and little pyramids were set up at the corners of the walled enclosure, the urns being buried in the earth.
Fig. 245.—Sepulchral enclosure with triclinium funebre.
Two of the monuments were erected for children (40, 41). They stand near together on the high ground in the angle formed by the Vesuvius Road. They are small vaulted niches, ornamented with reliefs in white stucco, most of which has fallen off. The urn in each was placed in the earth under the bottom of the niche, with a small pipe tile leading to the surface, through which libations could be poured down upon it. A tablet is set in the sustaining wall at the side of the street below the larger niche (41), with the simple inscription, N. Velasio Grato, vix[it] ann. XII,—'To the memory of Numerius Velasius Gratus, who lived twelve years.' The inscription belonging to the other niche was even more simple, giving no first name: Salvius puer vixit annis VI,—'The boy Salvius lived six years.'