Columbarium Pomponii Hylae
About
This underground family tomb near Porta Latina was built between 14 and 54 CE for freedmen of the imperial household, its walls lined with niches for cremation urns. A mosaic panel over the entrance steps names Pomponius Hylas, who later bought the chamber for himself and his wife Pomponia Vitalinis. Excavators uncovering it in 1831 found the stucco and mosaic decoration almost perfectly preserved. It remains one of the best-preserved columbaria in Rome.
What happened here
Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.
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 →