Various tombs, funeral enclosures and inscriptions-including one dedicated to a gladiator-were discovered in a vast necropol of the ancient city of Liternum, located in Giuliano, a suburb of the city of Naples.
Here, in 2023, Cerber’s exceptional tomb was discovered. The graves and constructions are in an excellent condition, giving archaeologists a unique opportunity to study the funeral culture of the Roman colony in southern Italy, from the end of the Republican period to the era of the high empire.
The Roman City ancient Liternum was founded in 194 BC, on the site of a much older settlement of the Italian Osco-Umbre populations. It was a colony of 300 veterans of the Second Punic War, soldiers from Scipio African, who defeated Hannibal in the battle of Zama 202 BC, ending the war with Carthage. The Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote that Scipio African had a villa in Liternum, built of stone blocks, with two towers at each end, like a military fortress. He retired in his fortress in the south in 194 BC. And he died nine years later.
The recently discovered necropolis has been used since the end of the 1st century BC. Until the third century AD. and includes numerous Romanian funeral practices. It covers an area of over 150 square meters and is just a few minutes walk from the city forum and the amphitheater. Its positioning provides valuable information about the limits of the city and the ancient route via Domitiana, which would have gone through the graves or even among them.
Two remarkable funeral structures were discovered. They were made of masonry covered with white plaster, which was later painted in red. Between the two buildings was a space with a deep fountain, which is believed to have been used for ritual purposes. Inside one of the structures is a patrol mausoleum, made of opposite reticulatum (bush blocks with rhomboid form), with plastered niches on the sides in which the ash balloons were placed.
Archaeologists have identified 20 different tombs around the walls of the enclosures. Enchytrismos (in amphorae) tombs, covered with stone plates and “capuchin” tombs, ie covered with terracotta plates (tegulae) to each other to form a two waters. Inside the tombs were found modest funeral objects, such as coins, lamps and small ceramic vessels.
