Vatican Museums

Various tombs (also known as domus aeternales) were entitled and consecrated to eternal repose, combined at times with the protection of the Manes (the good spirits of the family beyond the tomb), such as the one that Lucius Valerius commissioned during his lifetime for himself, his freedmen and freedwomen (liberti, liberatae) and their descendants, and for Lucius Caecilius Victor, producer, trader and craftsman of leather (coriarius). The twenty-six year-old Sulpicia Chyrsis, nicknamed Bassa (wife of Valerius?) was already buried there. The faith of the pagan Valerius (the mention of deus in the singular form is not sufficient to confirm him as a Christian) becomes clear in the warning to passers-by: “you who read without praying, will have God as your witness”. If prayer in the presence of the tomb proves the religiosity of the passer-by, he who has not prayed will be seen as a potential violator, whose failings will be seen by a divine witness. This and other formulas of a similar nature did not guarantee against destruction and looting.