Below the west end of the horrea along side III of the hexagon the remains of three tombs were found in 1924 by Guido Calza. They were made in the second half of the first century by people working in the harbour of Claudius. They are thus a reminder that many buildings belonging to that harbour must have been demolished when Trajan started his work. However, one of the tombs was not torn down, but preserved inside the warehouse. It must have been the final resting place of one of more people of special significance in the port.
Of the first tomb all that remains is a small pilaster covered with red plaster (b on the plan). The remains of the second tomb are below a porticus of the warehouse (c). All that remains is the perimeter, measuring 4.00 x 3.90 m. On the inside the walls are of opus incertum, covered with white plaster, on the outside opus reticulatum was used, with solid red plaster.
Plan of the tombs inside the warehouse. Calza 1925, fig. 4.
The tomb that was respected (a, d) has the same alignment as tomb c. The layout of the warehouse was adapted for the preservation of the tomb. The perimeter of the tomb consists on the inside of opus reticulatum, on the outside of opus latericium covered with red plaster. In the lateral walls are two rows of small, semicircular niches, in the back wall are two niches at either end (0.55 x 0.35 m.). In each niche two urns were placed. In the east wall is a door (0.80 wide, 1.87 high), in the north wall are six splayed windows. The pavement has disappeared.
A funerary chamber was set again set the south wall (4.90 x 3.55 m.). The exterior is made of excellent brickwork. In the north wall, at 3.20 from the floor, is a rectangular depression, probably for a terracotta relief. In the west wall is a door (0.91 wide, 1.80 high).
The north wall of the funerary chamber d,
with a depression for a relief. Calza 1925, fig. 6.
The interior is of opus mixtum, covered with painted plaster. It receives light through splayed windows. It is covered by a barrel vault with an arch creating a back part with a semicircular niche (0.85 wide; a niche in the east wall, 0.82 wide, was later filled in). In front of the niche is a podium (0.36 high, 1.02 wide). Below the podium is a forma "a cappuccina" for inhumation. The floor has disappeared, apart from a stone slab with a small depression, in the centre of the room. A staircase of 16 steps, 0.45 wide, was set against the east wall and led to an upper room, at 4.80 from the floor (the cella of the warehouse will have been 8.30 m. high). Here part of a black-and-white mosaic floor has been preserved.
Cross-section of the tomb, seen from the east. Calza 1925, fig. 5.
A few meters away from the tomb a funerary altar with an inscription was found. It may well come from this tomb, like a second inscription in the Torlonia collection, mentioning the same deceased.
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DIS MANIBVS INGENVO AVG(usti) LIB(erto) TABVLARIO PORTVS AVG(usti) VIXIT ANNIS XXVIIII MENSIB(us) X DIEBVS XIIII FLAVIA CRISPINA MARITO OPTIME DE SE MERITO ET FLAVIVS FAVSTVS FRATRI PIISSIMO |
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| T(itus) FLAVIVS [Aug(usti) lib(ertus)] INGENVVS TAB[ularius] TESTAMENTO FIE[ri iussit] DE ((sestertiis)) [---] T(itus) FLAVIVS AV[g(usti) lib(ertus) Faustus] FR[at ---] [Fla]VIA C[rispina ---] |
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Top left and right. The funerary altar of Ingenuus (h. 1.28, w. 0.89, d. 0.47). EDR073003. Photo: EDCS. Bottom left. Inscription on a marble slab (0.50 x 0.51). EDR106773. |
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The burial of Titus Flavius Ingenuus was arranged by his wife, Flavia Crispina, and his brother, Titus Flavius Faustus, according to the will of Ingenuus. The brothers were freedmen of a Flavian Emperor, pointing to a date in the late first or early second century AD. Ingenuus died at the age of 29 years. He had been tabularius Portus Augusti, i.e. in charge of archives of the port.
The ruins have been preserved in a small courtyard of a building containing drainage machines of the hexagon.
Sources
Calza 1925, 60-66, 71-73, 79-80; Lugli-Filibeck 1935, 103-104.