The Mausoleum of Lucilio Peto is located on the Via Salaria in Rome, on the corner with Via Basento. Lucilio Peto was a military tribunus and the prefect of the blacksmiths and the cavalry.
Mausoleum of Lucilio Peto in Rome
Useful information
The address of the Mausoleum is Via Salaria, 125, and the entrance fee is 4 Euro. The Mausoleum can only be visited with a guide. These tours are organized by so-called Associazioni Culturali and are not included in the price of the visit. Call (+39 060608) for information about coming tours. (Note that prices and times may be subject to change.)
History and description
The mausoleum was built in the last years of the 1st century B.C. A large inscription on the mausoleum gives the name of the owner. Already during his lifetime, he had the mausoleum built for himself and for his sister Lucilia Polla.
The tomb of Lucilius Petus was already abandoned and filled with sand by the end of the 1st century AD.
In the 4th century AD, the mausoleum came to be reoccupied. A number of small brick tombs were constructed on the outside, while the interior was transformed into a small catacomb. (The tombs on the outside were unfortunately destroyed druing the excavations.)
The floor plan is circular and the mausoleum itself drum-shaped, with a diameter of about 34 meters. The core is covered with blocks of travertine marble. The drum-shaped portion was covered with a 16-meter-high, funnel-shaped mound of sand.
The burial chamber itself is entered trough a vaulted corridor. The tombs, of which only one remains, used to be located in three niches in the chamber.