letter M beside his name, for _missus_, is followed by the death sign

[Theta], the first letter of the Greek word for death, [Greek: THANATOS].

The animals shown in the venatio are mainly wild boars and bears, but we recognize also a lion and a bull. Lions were doubtless much more rarely seen in such exhibitions at Pompeii than at Rome.

As more attention came to be given to the outward appearance of tombs, less was bestowed upon the adornment of the sepulchral chamber. So in the tomb of Scaurus the burial vault is low, cramped, and with plain white walls. A massive pillar, as in the tomb of the Istacidii, supports the vaulted ceiling. It is pierced by two openings, forming four niches, two on each side. Three of these, when the tomb was opened, were closed by panes of glass, and there were traces of a curtain that hung over the one opposite the entrance. There were fourteen other niches in the walls at the sides.

No name is associated with the third tomb (18 on the plan) which, as shown by Plate X, is simply a large cylinder of masonry, the top of which probably had the shape of a truncated cone; the material is brick, with a facing of white stucco lined off to give the appearance of blocks of marble. The base is square; the enclosing wall is adorned with miniature towers. The structure illustrates in its simplest form the type of the massive tomb, or mausoleum, found at Rome; we are at once reminded of the imposing monument of Caecilia Metella on the Appian Way, and of Hadrian's Mausoleum in the city.

A blank tablet was placed by the builder on the front of the enclosing wall to receive an inscription after his death. The heirs, however, preferred to put the memorial on the tomb itself, where the place of an inscription is plainly seen, the slab itself having disappeared. The sepulchral chamber is in the superstructure; it was decorated with simple designs in the fourth style on a white ground. There were only three niches, perhaps for father, mother, and child; the urns were let into the bottoms of the niches, as often in the Roman columbaria.

One of the miniature towers on the enclosing wall is ornamented with a relief presenting a singular design; a woman in mourning habit is laying a fillet on a skeleton reclining on a heap of stones (Fig. 241). The scene may be interpreted as symbolizing the grief of a mother for a dead son.

There is only a simple bust stone in the burial lot (19) beyond the round monument. Next comes the beautiful tomb of Calventius Quietus (20), which may be seen in Plate X, as well as the tomb of Naevoleia Tyche (22; further to the right). Between these two is a walled enclosure (21) without a door, in which are three bust stones. The largest stone bears the name N. Istacidius Helenus; in front of one of the others a small jar was set to receive offerings for the dead. On the front of the enclosing wall is a tablet on which the names of N. Istacidius Januarius and of Mesonia Satulla appear with that of Helenus; they were all freedmen of the Istacidii (p. 412).

The monuments of Quietus and of Tyche are the finest examples of the altar type at Pompeii. Both are ornamented in good taste, but the carvings of the former are more delicate, while the motives of the latter are more elaborate. Quietus was a man of some prominence, as we see from the epitaph: _C. Calventio Quieto Augustali; huic ob munificent[iam] decurionum decreto et populi conse[n]su bisellii honor datus est_,--'To the memory of Gaius Calventius Quietus, member of the Brotherhood of Augustus. On account of his generosity the honor of a seat of double width was conferred upon him by the vote of the city council and the approval of the people.'

At the Theatre and the Amphitheatre, Quietus had the privilege of sitting on a bisellium, as if he were a member of the city council. Below the inscription is a representation of the 'seat of double width,' shown in Fig. 242. The square footstool at the middle implies that the seat was intended for a single person. The ends of the tomb were ornamented with finely carved reliefs of the civic crown, which was made of oak leaves and awarded to those who had saved the life of a Roman citizen (Fig. 243). As the inscription does not record any deed of valor, it may be that the crown is used here merely as a decorative device.

Though the monument of Quietus was built in the last years of the city, when such structures were generally provided with sepulchral chambers, it has no burial vault, and the enclosing wall is without a door. It is perhaps a cenotaph, a monument erected in honor of a man whose remains were interred elsewhere; it is also possible that Quietus had no relatives who wished to have an accessible sepulchral chamber in order to make libations to his ashes, and that for this reason the monument was made solid, the urn being buried in the earth underneath. The small turrets on the enclosing wall were adorned with reliefs; among them Oedipus solving the riddle of the Sphinx, and Theseus after the slaughter of the Minotaur. The suggestion is obvious: he who is commemorated here had solved the riddle of existence, had found an exit from the labyrinth of life.

Around the front and sides of the tomb of Naevoleia Tyche runs a border of acanthus arabesques, forming panels in which reliefs are placed. The border in front is interrupted at the middle of the upper side by the portrait of Tyche; the lower half of the panel is devoted to a ceremonial scene in which offerings appear to be made to the dead, while in the upper half, under the portrait, we read the inscription: _Naevoleia L. lib[erta] Tyche sibi et C. Munatio Fausto Aug[ustali] et pagano, cui decuriones consensu populi bisellium ob merita eius decreverunt. Hoc monimentum Naevoleia Tyche libertis suis libertabusq[ue] et C. Munati Fausti viva fecit_,--'Naevoleia Tyche, freedwoman of Lucius Naevoleius, for herself and for Gaius Munatius Faustus, member of the Brotherhood of Augustus and suburban official, to whom on account of his distinguished services the city council, with the approval of the people, granted a seat of double width. This monument Naevoleia Tyche built in her lifetime also for the freedmen and freedwomen of herself and of Gaius Munatius Faustus,' who was seemingly her husband.

The bisellium of Faustus is shown in one of the end panels; in the other we see a ship sailing into port (Fig. 243). The carving of the relief is bold, though crude; we see the sailors furling the sail, as the vessel glides into still water. The scene is symbolical of death,--the entrance of the soul after the storms of life into a haven of rest. The thought is expressed by Cicero with deep feeling in his essay on Old Age: 'As for myself, I find the ripening of life truly agreeable; the nearer I come to the time of death, the more I feel like one who begins to see land and knows that sometime he will enter the harbor after the long voyage.'

The sepulchral chamber of this tomb has a large niche opposite the entrance; the urn standing in it apparently contained the cinerary remains of two persons, Tyche and Faustus. Other urns were found in the smaller niches in the walls and on the bench of masonry along the sides. Three were of glass, protected by lead cases; one of them is shown in Fig. 244. They contained ashes and fragments of bone, with remains of a liquid mixture, which was shown by chemical analysis to have consisted of water, wine, and oil. Lamps were found on the bench, one for each urn, and there were others in a corner; they were used on anniversary days to light the chamber.

The last monument consists of a walled enclosure, with a table and couches of masonry like those often found in the gardens of private houses (Fig. 245). In front of the table is a small round altar for libations. This was a place for banquets in honor of the dead, _triclinium funebre_; a tomb designed to serve the convenience of the living, like the niche of Cerrinius Restitutus and the benches of Veius and Mamia. The walls were painted in the last style.

Over the entrance in front we read: _Cn. Vibrio Q. f. Fal. Saturnino Callistus lib._,--'To the memory of Gnaeus Vibrius Saturninus son of Quintus, of the tribe Falerna; erected by his freedman Callistus.' As Saturninus did not belong to the tribe Menenia, he was very likely not a native of Pompeii. His ashes were probably placed in an urn and buried in the earth between the altar and the entrance.

There is every reason to suppose that the series of tombs on the south side of the highway is continued beyond the villa of Diomedes; but it has not yet been found possible to carry the excavations further in that direction.

The tombs of the fourth group present no new types of design or construction. Several of them are of interest, however, on account of peculiarities of arrangement. At the time of the eruption two of the monuments (33, 35) were in process of building; it is impossible to tell what form they were to have. A third (36) had been commenced on a large scale, but apparently the money of the heirs gave out, and little pyramids were set up at the corners of the walled enclosure, the urns being buried in the earth.

Two of the monuments were erected for children (40, 41). They stand near together on the high ground in the angle formed by the Vesuvius Road. They are small vaulted niches, ornamented with reliefs in white stucco, most of which has fallen off. The urn in each was placed in the earth under the bottom of the niche, with a small pipe tile leading to the surface, through which libations could be poured down upon it. A tablet is set in the sustaining wall at the side of the street below the larger niche (41), with the simple inscription, _N. Velasio Grato, vix[it] ann. XII_,--'To the memory of Numerius Velasius Gratus, who lived twelve years.' The inscription belonging to the other niche was even more simple, giving no first name: _Salvius puer vixit annis VI_,--'The boy Salvius lived six years.'

One tomb (34) is noteworthy on account of its door. This has the appearance of a double door, but it is made of a single slab of marble, and swings, like an ordinary Roman door, by means of pivots which are fitted into sockets in the threshold and lintel. It was also provided with a lock. The exterior of the tomb was unfinished; the reticulate masonry still lacked its facing of more costly material. The sepulchral chamber, however, contained several cinerary urns; one of them, of alabaster, was in a large niche facing the entrance, and a gold seal ring, with the figure of a deer in an intaglio, was found in it among the ashes and fragments of bone. There were also several lamps, a small altar of terra cotta, and a few glass perfume vials. Two amphorae, of the sort used for wine, stood against the sides of the chamber; such were sometimes utilized as repositories for ashes.

One of the volutes of the well preserved limestone tomb of M. Alleius Luccius Libella (37) is seen in Plate X. The monument has the shape of an altar, and is apparently solid. It was erected by the widow, Alleia Decimilla, priestess of Ceres, in memory of her husband, who was duumvir in 26 A.D., and of a son of the same name, who was a member of the city council and died in his eighteenth year. The burial plot was given by the city. As no opening was left in the monument, Decimilla evidently planned to have her ashes deposited in another tomb, perhaps that of her father's family.

The remaining four tombs are of the same type; the idea is that of a temple, the columnar construction being suggested not by projecting half-columns, as in the tomb of the Istacidii, but by more or less prominent pilasters at the corners and on the sides. Two of the tombs (38 and 39) stand where the tongue of land between the highway and the Vesuvius Road begins to descend to the level of the pavement.

The remains of the tomb of Ceius Labeo (38) are shown in Plate X (in the foreground, at the left). The appearance of this monument was somewhat like that of the Istacidii; there was a second story, the roof of which was supported entirely by columns; between these, statues of members of the family were placed, of both men and women, some of marble, others of tufa coated with stucco. The base was ornamented with stucco reliefs, which have almost entirely disappeared; above, in front, were two portrait medallions.

The large sepulchral chamber can be seen in the plate. The floor was more than six feet below the surface of the ground. A vaulted niche in the rear wall was connected with the outside by means of a small opening at the top, through which libations could be poured or offerings dropped upon the urn below. In the vicinity of the monument was found the inscription: _L. Ceio L. f. Men. Labeoni iter[um] d. v. i. d. quinq[uennali] Menomachus l[ibertus]_,--'To the memory of Lucius Ceius Labeo son of Lucius, of the tribe Menenia, twice duumvir with judiciary authority, also quinquennial duumvir; erected by his freedman, Menomachus.'

There were bust stones in the plot belonging to this monument, and also about the adjoining tomb (39); the names of those whose ashes were deposited under the stones, in part, at least, seem to have been painted upon the base of Labeo's tomb, but they were illegible at the time of excavation. The adjoining tomb (39) is without a name, but was built after that erected in honor of Labeo.

The tombs at the end of the fourth group (42, 43) belong to one household. In the sustaining wall along the highway a sepulchral tablet of tufa is seen with the inscription: _Arriae M. f. Diomedes l[ibertus] sibi suis_,--'Diomedes, a freedman, for Arria, daughter of Marcus Arrius, for himself and for his family.' On the elevation directly above is his tomb, the end of which is seen in Plate X (in the foreground). It bears the inscription: _M. Arrius [^C]. l. Diomedes sibi suis memoriae, magister pag[i] Aug[usti] Felic[is] suburb[ani]_,--'Marcus Arrius Diomedes, freedman of Arria, magistrate of the suburb Pagus Augustus Felix, in memory of himself and his family.'

The abbreviation [^C]. l. takes the place of _Gaiae libertus_, 'freedman of Gaia,' the letter C, which stands for Gaius, being reversed; Gaia is used, as in legal formulas, to show that the person referred to is a woman. The slave Diomedes, after receiving his freedom, was entitled to the use of the family name, and was known as Marcus Arrius Diomedes. His mistress, as Roman ladies generally, was called not by a first name, but by the feminine form of the family name, Arria, which was as plainly suggested to a Roman reading the name Arrius followed by the symbol as if it had been written in full.

On the front of the tomb we observe in stucco relief two bundles of rods, _fasces_, with axes, having reference to the official position of Diomedes as a magistrate of a suburb. The axes are quite out of place. Suburban officers did not have the 'power of life and death'; the lictors of such magistrates carried bundles of rods without axes. The vain display of authority reminds one of the pompous petty official held up to ridicule by Horace in his Journey to Brundisium; it suggests also the rods and axes painted on the posts at the entrance of the dining room of Trimalchio, in Petronius's novel. The tomb was constructed without a burial vault, but there were two bust stones near by with names of freedmen of Diomedes.

The monument to Arria (43) lies further back; it fronts on the Vesuvius Road. Diomedes found a way to reconcile happily his own love of display with his duty to his former mistress; he built a larger monument for her, but chose for his own the more conspicuous position. The small sepulchral chamber of Arria's tomb contained nothing of interest and is now walled up.