Necropolis Portae Herculaneae
About
Dozens of tombs lined the Via dei Sepolcri just outside Pompeii's Herculaneum Gate, built between the colony's founding in 80 BCE and the eruption of 79 CE. Freedmen, magistrates, and merchants competed for plots visible to everyone entering the city, filling the road with altars, exedra benches, and aedicula shrines. Vesuvius buried the entire street under ash and pumice in 79 CE, sealing it exactly as it stood. Excavation from the 18th century onward has recovered it intact.
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 →