Tomb Garden with Monument of Julia Mutiana
Location
Sublocation
Garden
Tomb Garden and Pool of Cingius Iustinus
Keywords
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.
Dates
Second half of the second or the third century (CE)
Bibliography
- CIL 3.2397.