Artefacts from the tomb of the family of Claudia Semne
Photogallery
Artefacts from the tomb of the family of Claudia Semne
The slab and lintel inserted in the wall above form part of a group of inscriptions and sculptures preserved in the Vatican Museums and related to the same tomb, built by Marcus Ulpius Crotonensis, a freedman of the emperor Trajan, for his eighteen year-old son of the same name and his wife Claudia Semne, both deceased. The monument, surrounded by a dry stone wall (maceria), included a garden (hortus) with pergolas (tricliae), a small vineyard (viniola), a well (puteus) and possibly three shrines for statues of his wife represented in formam deorum, that is, with the appearance of the goddesses Fortuna, Hope and Venus, honoured with the altar displayed below the wall (attributes of the goddesses are also found in an artefact belonging to the Torlonia family). A bust of Semne and her portrait on a kline (“bed”) also allude to Venus. The child is portrayed wearing a toga in two statues (one on a base engraved with the epitaph, now lost). A bust of him is preserved in the Louvre.