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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.
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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