DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0494
420
POMPEII
person referred to is a woman. The slave Diomedes, after re-
ceiving his freedom, was entitled to the use of the family name,
and was known as Marcus Arrius Diomedes. His mistress, as
Roman ladies generally, was called not by a first name, but by
the feminine form of the family name, Arria, which was as
plainly suggested to a Roman reading the name Arrius followed
by the symbol as if it had been written in full.
On the front of the tomb we observe in stucco relief two
bundles of rods, fasces, with axes, having reference to the official
position of Diomedes as a magistrate of a suburb. The axes
are quite out of place. Suburban officers did not have the
‘ power of life and death ’; the lictors of such magistrates carried
bundles of rods without axes. The vain display of authority
reminds one of the pompous petty official held up to ridicule
by Horace in his Journey to Brundisium ; it suggests also the
rods and axes painted on the posts at the entrance of the dining
room of Trimalchio, in Petronius’s novel. The tomb was con-
structed without a burial vault, but there were two bust stones
near by with names of freedmen of Diomedes.
The monument to Arria (43) lies further back; it fronts on
the Vesuvius Road. Diomedes found a way to reconcile happily
his own love of display with his duty to his former mistress ; he
built a larger monument for her, but chose for his own the more
conspicuous position. The small sepulchral chamber of Arria’s
tomb contained nothing of interest and is now walled up.
POMPEII
person referred to is a woman. The slave Diomedes, after re-
ceiving his freedom, was entitled to the use of the family name,
and was known as Marcus Arrius Diomedes. His mistress, as
Roman ladies generally, was called not by a first name, but by
the feminine form of the family name, Arria, which was as
plainly suggested to a Roman reading the name Arrius followed
by the symbol as if it had been written in full.
On the front of the tomb we observe in stucco relief two
bundles of rods, fasces, with axes, having reference to the official
position of Diomedes as a magistrate of a suburb. The axes
are quite out of place. Suburban officers did not have the
‘ power of life and death ’; the lictors of such magistrates carried
bundles of rods without axes. The vain display of authority
reminds one of the pompous petty official held up to ridicule
by Horace in his Journey to Brundisium ; it suggests also the
rods and axes painted on the posts at the entrance of the dining
room of Trimalchio, in Petronius’s novel. The tomb was con-
structed without a burial vault, but there were two bust stones
near by with names of freedmen of Diomedes.
The monument to Arria (43) lies further back; it fronts on
the Vesuvius Road. Diomedes found a way to reconcile happily
his own love of display with his duty to his former mistress ; he
built a larger monument for her, but chose for his own the more
conspicuous position. The small sepulchral chamber of Arria’s
tomb contained nothing of interest and is now walled up.