Columbaria of Vigna Codini
About
Three vast underground burial chambers stood between the Appian and Latin Ways, their brick vaults lined floor to ceiling with niches for cinerary urns. The oldest of the three belonged to freedmen and slaves of Marcus Claudius Marcellus, brother of Tiberius, and dates to the Augustan era. Excavated in the mid-19th century, the chambers held thousands of urns for imperial household staff who could never afford solo tombs. They remain among the largest columbaria found in Rome.
What happened here
The dead are outside the walls because the law requires it, so the approach to every town is lined with them. Tombs face the road in rows, grand ones in front and simpler markers behind, all of them addressed to the passer-by. Burial clubs let ordinary people and slaves pay a monthly subscription for a place in a communal vault and a decent funeral; the alternative is a pit. Families come out on anniversaries and at the February festival, eat at the graveside, and pour wine into a pipe set into the ground. Undertakers, stonecutters and letter-cutters work nearby and compete on price. Ground is bought by the foot, and the frontage on the road costs the most.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →