Location of Tomb E


Necropolis (Scavi) Tomb E
Tomb of T. Aelius Tyrannus
 

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From: 'Guide to the Vatican Necropolis' by Michele Basso, Fabbrica di S. Pietro

Tomb of T. Aelius Tyrannus (Tomb E)

The titulus of this tomb is no longer in place, although the elegant multicolored teracotta frame remains; the name of the tomb is derived from an inscription on a stone found inside the arcosolium on the left hand wall. The owner is (T.) Aelius Tyrannus, a freedman who came to take up public office in the administration of the Roman province of the Belgica region of Gaul.

 

 

 

 

The most interesting details in this tomb are the two alabaster cineraria placed inside equally-decorated niches. Among the stucco figures and pictures decorating the walls, on should take note of two peacocks beside a basket of flowers, birds in flight and funerary genii.

There are arcosolia and niches for cinerary urns in the walls; there are also the remains of th mosaic pavement in small pieces of black and white marble; notice the staircase by which the procession descended from the upper room, used for the rite of "refrigerio", to the inner burial room for the libation rite on the tombs of the deceased.


Sources
P. Zander. The Vatican Necropolis, in "Roma Sacra", 25, Roma 2003
Margherita Guarducci, The Tomb of St Peter, Hawthorn Books, 1960
John Evangelist Walsh, The Bones of St Peter, New York, 1982
J. Toynbee - J.W. Perkins. The Shrine of St Peter and the Vatican Excavations, London 1956
Michele Basso. Guide to the Vatican Necropolis, Fabbrica di S. Pietro in Vaticano, 1986

 

 

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