Archaeologists discover friends of Caesars inside Vatican City

So far, 250 magnificent burials of the Roman elite, servants and freed slaves from the Julio-Claudian era to the times of Emperor Constantin have been unearthed inside the walls of the Vatican City, revealing the life of the rich and poor in Rome.

The Roman necropolis stood on the current hill of the Vatican along the ancient Via Triumphalis. Until now, only a small area of about 1,000 square meters has been investigated by archaeologists.

The numerous tombs with human remains date from the 1st to the beginning of the 4th century CE, and include a bewildering array of built chamber-tombs, gravestones, funerary portraits and beautiful sculptured sarcophagi bearing the names of the entombed, as well as ground-level libation pipes but also poorer open-air (but underground) deposition with grave objects still present on the tomb, thus allowing the archaeologist to study Roman burial customs from the 1st to the 3rd century CE.

The ongoing excavations have provided intriguing and unexpected insights into Roman life – such as the mobility of people from the lower classes to the higher social strata, but also changes in burial practices and the transformation of beliefs.

”The burials not only shed light on the transition of burial practices, such as the passage from cremation to the less expensive practice of inhumation: The funerary rites also express the hopes and superstition of the deceased at a time when the Romans stopped believing in the Olympian gods, so they were left uncertain [how to] trust their expectation of an afterlife [relative] to new philosophies or old superstitions,” according to Giandomenico Spinola, director of the department of Greek and Roman art in the Vatican Museum.  

In Roman times, cemeteries and tombs were lined along the roads that lead to urban centers, so that the mere entering of a city would bring the visitor into contact with the world of death. The funerary monuments commemorated the lives of the Roman elite, who built lavish monuments to ensure their lasting legacy.

However, the newly excavated burials along the Via Triumphalis have provided intriguing and unexpected insights into the life of those who were outside this Roman elite.

In fact, in ancient Rome, the prospect for economic movement existed, and when people of the lower classes such as former slaves became wealthy, they sought to memorialize their success by building a tomb or grave marker that served as a visual reminder of their rise to the noveau rich.

Two examples of surviving funerary monuments from the necropolis of Santa Rosa illustrate some of these tendencies while providing a window into Roman funerary culture and art associated with freedmen, that is, people who were former slaves.

In the eastern part of the cemetery, many of the monumental tombs that have been excavated have engraved inscriptions providing valuable details into the life of the deceased. 

In this burial area, the archaeologists also discovered two lavish funeral altars that date to the time of Emperor Nero (54-68 CE).

The first altar was dedicated to Flora by her parents Tiberius Claudius Optatus and Passiena Prima. Later on, an inscription was added with the name of their son, Tiberius Claudius Proculus as well as of Lucius Passienus Evaristus, who was the freed slave and Passiena Prima’s brother.

What is of great interest is the specification of Optatus’ job in the inscription. He had served as Nero’s archivist, a position of trust and delicacy.

The second altar is dedicated to the memory of Passiena Prima, showing a portrait of her with a hairstyle typical of the Julia-Claudian era, which is identical with the hair style of Agrippina the younger, Nero’s mother.

“We seem to have here a group of freedmen all connected, either directly or indirectly, to the familia Caesaris,” says Dr. Leonardo Di Blasi who is co-director of the necropolis of Santa Rosa.

While the freed slave Tiberius Claudius was not a member of Rome’s elite or patrician class, he certainly wanted to convey his importance and close proximity to the imperial family by erecting these two altars, showing his family’s status.

Next to the family tomb of Tiberius Claudius, the archaeologists discovered a beautiful funerary building dedicated to the slave Alcimus, whom Emperor Nero had commissioned to carry out maintenance work inside one of Rome’s most important theaters, Theatro Pompeiano, also known as the theater of Pompeus since it was built by Pompeus the Great in 55 BCE.

Nearby was found a marble funerary shrine with the portrait of young child, Tiberius Natronius Venustus, who was four years, four months and ten days old when he died.

Another magnificent burial, dating from the mid-3rd century CE, has been found on the hillside, in the northeastern corner of the Vatican and above an earlier tomb dating back to the 1st century CE.

The entrance of the tomb leads to an 1,800-year-old chamber room, with two arched recesses at the back of the chamber, which was used as a place of entombment.  Here the archaeologists found five sarcophagi placed on an elaborate decorated mosaic floor, with a braided pattern depicting cupids harvesting grapes from vines, and a Dionysius leaning on a young satyr.

”From the end of the second century, families belonging to the new social class built their own sepulchres above the ancient burials, displaying their social status through the rich marble sarcophagi that replaced the practice of cremation,” explains Di Blasi.

Buried inside one of the sarcophaguses was Publius Caesilius Victorinus, a Roman equestrian (equivalent to the social class of a knight) who died at the age of 17. The lid of the sarcophagus depicts several dolphins swimming among the sea waves.

“Dolphins, known as friends of sailors, were considered a good omen by seamen; there are many legends about dolphins that lead sailors to safer shores,” explains Di Blasi.

In the classical world, dolphins often give lifts to both mortals and gods, and were considered Poseidon's special messengers. In the funerary context, therefore, the dolphins accompany the souls to the underworld.

“Victorinus was buried at a time when Christianity was spreading in the Roman Empire. Interestingly, the iconography of the sarcophagi displays both pagan and Christian elements. For instance, the figures of the dolphins are symbolically transformed into Christ, who leads the dead to the "safest shores" of the sky.

Another clue to the Christian faith of the deceased is a female figure with her arms raised in prayer, which in Roman art symbolizes virtue or pietas, a religious devotion for one’s family and homeland. However, in Christian iconography, the image symbolizes the committing of the soul to Christ in prayer.

The Mausoleum-like building that contained the five sarcophagi bears close resemblance with the so-called “tombs of the Egyptians” that was found in the necropolis under St. Peter’s Basilica. It is called the Egyptian tomb because of the picture of Horus, which is painted in the center of the north wall of the tomb.

Alongside these monumental graves, the archaeologists have found hundreds of burials of ordinary roman citizens. 

 “The necropolis of Santa Rosa is one of the best-preserved burial sites of the Roman world and contains a treasure trove of the life of the ancient Romans. In this graveyard we have found the burials of ordinary men such as postmen, bakers, blacksmiths, fountain makers, ambassadors and members of a team of the charioteers that competed in the circus,” Di Blasi concluded.

“The site will continue to provide valuable insight into Roman society.”

Since February 1, 2021, the necropolis inside the Vatican has been open to the public.