Pompeii, Its Life and Art

by August Mau

One tomb (34) is noteworthy on account of its door. This has the appearance of a double door, but it is made of a single slab of marble, and swings, like an ordinary Roman door, by means of pivots which are fitted into sockets in the threshold and lintel. It was also provided with a lock. The exterior of the tomb was unfinished; the reticulate masonry still lacked its facing of more costly material. The sepulchral chamber, however, contained several cinerary urns; one of them, of alabaster, was in a large niche facing the entrance, and a gold seal ring, with the figure of a deer in an intaglio, was found in it among the ashes and fragments of bone. There were also several lamps, a small altar of terra cotta, and a few glass perfume vials. Two amphorae, of the sort used for wine, stood against the sides of the chamber; such were sometimes utilized as repositories for ashes.

One of the volutes of the well preserved limestone tomb of M. Alleius Luccius Libella (37) is seen in [Plate X]. The monument has the shape of an altar, and is apparently solid. It was erected by the widow, Alleia Decimilla, priestess of Ceres, in memory of her husband, who was duumvir in 26 A.D., and of a son of the same name, who was a member of the city council and died in his eighteenth year. The burial plot was given by the city. As no opening was left in the monument, Decimilla evidently planned to have her ashes deposited in another tomb, perhaps that of her father's family.

The remaining four tombs are of the same type; the idea is that of a temple, the columnar construction being suggested not by projecting half-columns, as in the tomb of the Istacidii, but by more or less prominent pilasters at the corners and on the sides. Two of the tombs (38 and 39) stand where the tongue of land between the highway and the Vesuvius Road begins to descend to the level of the pavement.

The remains of the tomb of Ceius Labeo (38) are shown in [Plate X] (in the foreground, at the left). The appearance of this monument was somewhat like that of the Istacidii; there was a second story, the roof of which was supported entirely by columns; between these, statues of members of the family were placed, of both men and women, some of marble, others of tufa coated with stucco. The base was ornamented with stucco reliefs, which have almost entirely disappeared; above, in front, were two portrait medallions.

The large sepulchral chamber can be seen in the plate. The floor was more than six feet below the surface of the ground. A vaulted niche in the rear wall was connected with the outside by means of a small opening at the top, through which libations could be poured or offerings dropped upon the urn below. In the vicinity of the monument was found the inscription: L. Ceio L. f. Men. Labeoni iter[um] d. v. i. d. quinq[uennali] Menomachus l[ibertus],—'To the memory of Lucius Ceius Labeo son of Lucius, of the tribe Menenia, twice duumvir with judiciary authority, also quinquennial duumvir; erected by his freedman, Menomachus.'

There were bust stones in the plot belonging to this monument, and also about the adjoining tomb (39); the names of those whose ashes were deposited under the stones, in part, at least, seem to have been painted upon the base of Labeo's tomb, but they were illegible at the time of excavation. The adjoining tomb (39) is without a name, but was built after that erected in honor of Labeo.

The tombs at the end of the fourth group (42, 43) belong to one household. In the sustaining wall along the highway a sepulchral tablet of tufa is seen with the inscription: Arriae M. f. Diomedes l[ibertus] sibi suis,—'Diomedes, a freedman, for Arria, daughter of Marcus Arrius, for himself and for his family.' On the elevation directly above is his tomb, the end of which is seen in [Plate X] (in the foreground). It bears the inscription: M. Arrius Ↄ. l. Diomedes sibi suis memoriae, magister pag Aug[usti] Felic[is] suburb[ani],—'Marcus Arrius Diomedes, freedman of Arria, magistrate of the suburb Pagus Augustus Felix, in memory of himself and his family.'

The abbreviation Ↄ. l. takes the place of Gaiae libertus, 'freedman of Gaia,' the letter C, which stands for Gaius, being reversed; Gaia is used, as in legal formulas, to show that the person referred to is a woman. The slave Diomedes, after receiving his freedom, was entitled to the use of the family name, and was known as Marcus Arrius Diomedes. His mistress, as Roman ladies generally, was called not by a first name, but by the feminine form of the family name, Arria, which was as plainly suggested to a Roman reading the name Arrius followed by the symbol as if it had been written in full.

On the front of the tomb we observe in stucco relief two bundles of rods, fasces, with axes, having reference to the official position of Diomedes as a magistrate of a suburb. The axes are quite out of place. Suburban officers did not have the 'power of life and death'; the lictors of such magistrates carried bundles of rods without axes. The vain display of authority reminds one of the pompous petty official held up to ridicule by Horace in his Journey to Brundisium; it suggests also the rods and axes painted on the posts at the entrance of the dining room of Trimalchio, in Petronius's novel. The tomb was constructed without a burial vault, but there were two bust stones near by with names of freedmen of Diomedes.

The monument to Arria (43) lies further back; it fronts on the Vesuvius Road. Diomedes found a way to reconcile happily his own love of display with his duty to his former mistress; he built a larger monument for her, but chose for his own the more conspicuous position. The small sepulchral chamber of Arria's tomb contained nothing of interest and is now walled up.