Salona on Gardens of the Roman Empire

Cemetery Garden of Metrodorus

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

Late second or third century CE

Garden Description

A sarcophagus found at Salona in 1824, transported to the museum in Split, and subsequently lost bore an inscription recording the donation by Aur(elius) Aprilianus to Aur(elius) Amurus and Aur(elia) Quinta of a sarcophagus "which is in the garden of Metrodorus" and specifying that it was put into position while they were still alive (Aur(elius) Aprilianus se vivo donavet arcam Aur(elio) Amuro et Aur(eliae) Quinte que est in orto Metrodori. Vivi sibi posuerunt...). The find spot of the sarcophagus is not known, but Wilkes plausibly associates the garden of Metrodorus with a walled cemetery a hundred meters outside the city gate on the north side of the road leading west from town, which comprises a number of individual familial plots marked out by dividing walls within an area enclosed by a massive masonry perimeter built of blocks more than four meters long. The garden of Metrodorus was perhaps home also to the monument of Iulia Mutiana erected "among the sarcophagi in the middle in the garden, near the road, overlooking the old (?) courtyard (or seed bed)" (see the preceding entry): the two inscriptions belong broadly to the same period (the latter second or third century) and might well be contemporary with each other.

Bibliography

CIL 3.2207
M. Abramić, VAHD 52, 1935-49:1-18
J. J. Wilkes, Dalmatia. London, 1969, pp. 360-61, fig. 16.

Keywords

Tomb Garden and Pool of Cingius Iustinus

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

Late second or third century (CE)

Garden Description

A rock cut inscription at Salonae marks the spot where some time in the late second or third century Cingius Iustinus made a fishpond or pool (piscina) in the garden of his wife Aelia Licinia for her and for himself (fecit piscinam in horto Aeliae Liciniae coiugi incomparabili et sibi). No tomb is mentioned, but the dedication D(is) M(anibus) identifies the text as an epitaph and thus points to a funerary context.

Bibliography

CIL 3.2279

Keywords

Tomb Garden with Monument of Julia Mutiana

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

Second half of the second or the third century CE

Garden Description

An inscription reported among those of Salona records an epitaph set up by Iulia Mutiana for herself and her husband Aur(elius) Pateas in a place granted her by A. Aelius Marullinus "among the sarcophagi in the middle in the garden, near the road, overlooking the old (?) courtyard (or seed bed)" (inter arcas in medio in horto at viam prospicientem in areolam vet(erem ?)). The specification of a location within the garden, the mention of (other) sarcophagi, and the concession of Marullinus suggest that the cemetery was extensive and perhaps public. The term areola used to describe the area overlooked by Mutiana's monument generally means "courtyard" in architectural contexts (e.g. CIL 6.9077), "garden plot" or "seed bed" in agricultural ones (e.g. Columella 5.12.3, 10.362, 11.2.75). It is difficult to know which sense is to be preferred here. Whatever its character, Mommsen questioned the description of the areola as "old" (vet(erem)) and proposed an alternative reading "behind" (ret(ro)), unnecessarily, it seems. Nomenclature and circumstance (inhumation burial) point to a date in the second half of the second or the third century.

Bibliography

CIL 3.2397.

Keywords

tombs (AAT:300005926)
epitaphs (AAT:300028729)