Sepolcro di Cartlio Poplicola

Panel 90 - Location

The funerary monument was built in around 20 BC along a cemetery road in the area outside the Porta Marina.

The tomb’s square base had a revetment of travertine blocks; the central body was covered in marble on the front, and in travertine and tufa on the other sides; its corners were decorated with lesenes surmounted by little capitals.

Panel 90 - Figure 1North elevation of the tomb
(I. Gismondi, O. Visca)
Panel 90 - Figure 2Statue of Cartilius Poplicola as a resting athlete from the Temple of Hercules
(Museo Ostiense)

On the front is the inscription commemorating Caius Cartilius, an illustrious magistrate who held the city’s most important public offices, so popular that he earned for himself the nickname Poplicola (“friend of the people”).

The figurative frieze running along the upper cornice of the monument, depicting a row of soldiers and a trireme ship, probably commemorates a victory won under his command against an enemy from the sea.

Panel 90 - Figure 3Detail of the reliefs on the tomb

See also:

The Coastal Districts and the Maritime Domus