Necropolis Aquileiensis
About
Five walled burial enclosures belonging to Aquileian families lined a secondary road outside the city, used from the 1st century CE onward for both cremation and inhumation. Excavators recovered 87 tombs here, packed with glass balsam-jars, stamped oil lamps, and pottery imported from the eastern Mediterranean. Roman law barred burial inside the walls, so wealthy families competed for visibility along this road instead. It remains the only Aquileian necropolis still visible in situ.
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 →