Heroon of Atilia Pomptilla

The Heroon of Atilia Pomptilla in Cagliari is the only surviving Roman building in Sardinia that gained fame beyond the island.

The Heroon is a small grave building carved into the rock, the remains of which Alberto La Marmora saved from the construction of Carlo Felice (today's State Road 131) in 1822. The Sardinians call the building “Sa grutta 'e sa pibera” (Viper Grotto) because of the snakes depicted on the facade. The complex was studied in the 19th century by Georg Kaibel and Theodor Mommsen , among others, because of its poetic Greek and Latin inscriptions .

On the architrave of the Ionic facade one reads: O (pus) i (nstitutum) o (blatum) q (ue) s (acrae) memoriae Atiliae L (uci) f (iliae) Pomptillae benedictae m (aritus) s (ua) p (ecunia) . Anyone who thinks based on the inscription that it is a temple in memory of a certain Atilia Pomptilla will be taught better by one of the poems inside:

quod credis templum, quod saepe, viator, adoras,

Pomptillae cineres ossaq (ue) parva tegit.

Sardoa tellure p̣remor, comitata maritum,

proq (ue) viro fama est me voluisse mori.

“What you consider a temple, what you often worship, wanderer, / keep the ashes and the bones of Pomptilla. / I am buried in the Sardinian soil that I accompanied my husband / and it is my fame to have wanted to die for the man ”.

Other poems trace the story of Pomptilla and her husband Lucius Cassius Philippus . Philip was an educated Roman who apparently wrote all twelve Greek and Latin poems himself after studying Martial , Ovid , Virgil, and Euripides . When he fell from grace and was exiled to Sardinia, he became seriously ill. Pomptilla, who had faithfully accompanied him into exile, leaned over her dying husband one last time to kiss him goodbye - and breathed out her soul in the process. Philip miraculously strengthened and lived for some time. When he died, the urn in the tomb he had erected for Pomptilla also took up his ashes and united the married couple who had lived together for 42 years.

Nearby

• The Punic Necropolis of Tuvixeddu .

literature

• Goffredo Copolla: L'Heroon di Atilia Pomptilla in Cagliari. Bardi, Rome 1932.
• Rainer Pauli: Sardinia. History culture landscape. Voyages of discovery on one of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean . 7th edition. DuMont, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7701-1368-3 , ( DuMont documents. DuMont art travel guide ), p.
• Paolo Cugusi: "Carmina Latina epigraphica" e letteratura. The "heroon" of Atilia Pomptilla tra the "Alcesti" di Euripide and the "Alcestis Barcinonensis". In: Javier Del Hoyo Calleja, Joan Gómez Pallarés (eds.): Asta ac pellege. 50 años de la publicación de "Inscripciones hispanas en verso" de S. Mariner. Madrid 2002, pp. 125-142.

Remarks

1. ↑ CIL 10, 7563-7578. Text of the Greek inscriptions also Inscriptiones Graecae 14, 607 .

Coordinates: 39 ° 13 ′ 40.3 "  N , 9 ° 5 ′ 59.8"  E