[CHAPTER LI]
BURIAL PLACES NEAR THE NOLA, STABIAN, AND NOCERA GATES
No part of the highway leading from the Nola Gate has yet been excavated. In the year 1854, however, excavations were made for a short distance along the city wall near this gate, and thirty-six cinerary urns were found buried in the earth. In or near them were perfume vials of terra cotta with a few of glass. Here in the pomerium, the strip of land along the outside of the walls, which was left vacant for religious as well as practical reasons, the poor were permitted to bury the ashes of their dead without cost. In some cases the place of the urn was indicated by a bust stone; often the spot was kept in memory merely by cutting upon the outside of the city wall the name of the person whose ashes rested here.
There was another cemetery of the poor a short distance southwest of the Amphitheatre, south of the modern highway. It lay along a road which branched off from the highway leading to Stabiae and ran east in the direction of Nocera. Sepulchral remains were found here in 1755-57, and again in 1893-94, when further explorations were made. They consist of cinerary urns, buried in the earth, with small glass perfume vials in or near them, and a bust stone to mark the spot. A few of the stones are of marble and bear a name; the great majority are roughly carved out of blocks of lava, and if a name was painted on the front it has disappeared.
Of special significance, in connection with these burial places, is the arrangement for making offerings to the dead. In order that libations might be poured directly upon the cinerary urns, these were connected with the surface of the ground by means of tubes. In one instance a lead pipe ran from above into an opening made for it in the top of the lead case inclosing an urn. More often the connection was made by means of round tiles; in the case of one urn, three tiles were joined together, making a tube five feet long. The upper end of the libation tube did not project from the ground, but was placed just below the surface and covered with a flat stone; over this was a thin layer of earth, which the relatives would remove on the feast days of the dead. Pagan antiquity was never able to dissociate the spirit of the dead from the place of interment; the worship of ancestors was in no small degree the product of local associations.
In the vicinity of these remains is a sepulchral monument of modest dimensions, which, as we learn from the tablet over the entrance, was erected by Marcus Petasius Dasius in memory of his two sons, Severus and Communis, and of a freedwoman named Vitalis. There was no floor in the burial chamber; the urns were placed in the earth and marked by bust stones, among which was one set up for Dasius himself, with the initials M. P. D.
The Stabian Road has been excavated for but a short distance near the gate. The only monuments completely cleared are two large, semicircular benches, like those of Veius and Mamia ([p. 409]). At the rear of each is a small sepulchral enclosure in which the urns were buried. The memorial tablet belonging to the monument nearest the gate has disappeared, but two boundary stones at the corners of the lot bear the inscription: M. Tullio M. f. ex d[ecurionum] d[ecreto],—'To Marcus Tullius son of Marcus, in accordance with a vote of the city council.' The Tullius named was perhaps the builder of the temple of Fortuna Augusta ([p. 132]).
The inscription of the second bench, like that of Mamia, is cut in large letters on the back of the seat: M. Alleio Q. f. Men. Minio, II v. i. d.; locus sepulturae publice datus ex d. d.,—'To the memory of Marcus Alleius Minius son of Marcus, of the tribe Menenia, duumvir with judiciary authority. The place of burial was given in the name of the city by vote of the municipal council.'
A third bench, close to the second, lies under a modern house and has not been uncovered. Further from the gate a rectangular seat, probably belonging to the same series of monuments, was discovered in 1854, it was built in memory of a certain Clovatius, duumvir, as shown by a fragment of an inscription that came to light at the same time. From still another tomb are reliefs with gladiatorial combats, now in the Naples Museum.
With the exception of those near the Herculaneum Gate, the most important tombs yet discovered at Pompeii are in a group beyond the Amphitheatre, excavated in 1886-87. They are six in number, and lie close together on both sides of a road which ran east from the Nocera Gate, bending slightly to the north ([Fig. 246]). This road was not in use in the last years of the city; the stones of the pavement and sidewalk had been removed. The monuments, however, were large and stately, erected by people of means, and the ruins are characteristic and impressive. The tombs were built of common materials, stucco being used on exposed surfaces instead of marble. The simplicity of construction, and the shapes of the letters in the election notices and other inscriptions painted on them, suggest a relatively early date, which is confirmed by the age of the coins found in the urns; the monuments belong to the early decades of the Empire.