Licining tomb
As Liciniergrab in Classical Archeology family grave is a branch of the Roman sex of Licinii referred that in the years 1885/1886 at the Porta Salaria was found in Rome. The exact circumstances of the find are unclear, especially since the probable finds from the grave were scattered through theft and the antique trade. Altogether there were probably three burial chambers in which sarcophagi, grave altars and round plastic portrait heads were found. But it is questionable whether all the finds actually belonged to a single grave of the Licinians.
According to the inscriptions on the grave altars, the grave complex was used from the middle of the 1st century AD to the second half of the 2nd century by the Licinii Crassi, who at that time, as in the last century of the republic, were one of the leading families belonged to the Roman aristocracy. The first burial that can be dated was that of Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi (consul 27 AD, † 47 AD), the last that of Gaius Calpurnius Crassus Frugi Licinianus († in Hadrianic times). Among those buried in the tomb was Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus , the brief designated heir to the throne of Emperor Galba and son of the consul from 27 AD. A patrician woman buried here by the name of Licinia Cornelia Volusia Torquata is also mentioned in an altarpiece .
In the case of the sarcophagi found in the grave, which can be assigned to the later 2nd century, it is unclear whether they were intended for Licinii Crassi or whether the grave passed to another family.
The Licinier's grave is particularly important because of the portrait heads found there, some of which can be attributed to famous ancestors of the Imperial Licinians, as well as the triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus and his triumvirate colleague Gnaeus Pompey Magnus . 13 portrait heads are now in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek , Copenhagen, some of the sarcophagi in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.
literature
- Mathias Hofter : The aristocracy between tradition and adaptation: The grave of the Licinier . In: Emperor Augustus and the lost republic. An exhibition in the Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, June 7th – 14th. August 1988 . Zabern, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-8053-1048-X , pp. 316–323.
- Patrick Kragelund, Mette Moltesen , Jan Stubbe Ostergaard: The Licinian Tomb. Fact or fiction? Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen 2003, ISBN 87-7452-266-3 (Meddelelser fra Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 5; review [English])