Autoparco VI - The Necropolis of the “Via Triumphalis”
Long a narrow alley connecting the tombs N. 2 and N. 3, there are some small sepultures. The most important is a stele made as a small aedicule, and dedicated by Nunnius to himself, to his wife Ma and to their son Crescens.
The following inscription is carved on the lower part of the stele:
Nummius Neronius / Clau(di) Caes(aris) ser(vus) saltuar(ius) / sibi et Ma / uxori suae et Crescenti / filio suo bene merentibus.
The status of “servus saltuarius” of Nero qualifies Nemmnius as a slave assigned to an imperial estate. Ma, the name of his wife, identifies a deity worshiped in Cappadocia and in the near Orient.
The upper part of the stele is decorated with two bust portraits representing Crescens and Ma. The child shows a bob cut, while the hairstyle of the woman is in the manner of Agrippina Minor, the mother of Nero. A small pediment decorated with two birds drinking from a bowl, closes the stele. Two amphorae are enbedded in the earth just in front of the stele; they have been probably used for the introduction of libations offered to the deaths during the days dedicated to their cult.
Autoparco Necropolis map: Stele N 32.
Autoparco sector
Stele N. 32
Half of 1st Century AD
Vatican State
Source: P. Liverani, G. Spinola, “Le Necropoli Vaticane” , Jaca Book
Autoparco VI - The Necropolis of the “Via Triumphalis”
Long a narrow alley connecting the tombs N. 2 and N. 3, there are some small sepultures. The most important is a stele made as a small aedicule, and dedicated by Nunnius to himself, to his wife Ma and to their son Crescens.
The following inscription is carved on the lower part of the stele:
Nummius Neronius / Clau(di) Caes(aris) ser(vus) saltuar(ius) / sibi et Ma / uxori suae et Crescenti / filio suo bene merentibus.
The status of “servus saltuarius” of Nero qualifies Nemmnius as a slave assigned to an imperial estate. Ma, the name of his wife, identifies a deity worshiped in Cappadocia and in the near Orient.
The upper part of the stele is decorated with two bust portraits representing Crescens and Ma. The child shows a bob cut, while the hairstyle of the woman is in the manner of Agrippina Minor, the mother of Nero. A small pediment decorated with two birds drinking from a bowl, closes the stele. Two amphorae are enbedded in the earth just in front of the stele; they have been probably used for the introduction of libations offered to the deaths during the days dedicated to their cult.
Autoparco Necropolis map: Stele N 32.
Autoparco sector
Stele N. 32
Half of 1st Century AD
Vatican State
Source: P. Liverani, G. Spinola, “Le Necropoli Vaticane” , Jaca Book