Ipogeo degli Ottavi
Via della Stazione di Ottavia n. 73, under the Cottage drive shafts, it keeps the Hypogeum of the Round, discovered around 1920, during the building of the suburbs around km. 9 Street Triumphant: The new district was named in memory of Octavia characters that had been found in the Hypogeum tombs and whose names were inscribed on their coffins: Octavia Paolina, his father Octavius Felix, and two other joint.
The Hypogeum was built around the beginning of the third century. AD, subservient to some rural villas in the neighborhood, characterized by monumentality befitting the social position of the owner. The burial chamber was preceded by a vestibule painted with geometric patterns, to which was attached a long dromos (corridor) access carved into the stone, which is still preserved in the floor bricks opus spicatum.
Contrary to the expectations of Octavius, who surely thought of burying family members in order of seniority, the first underground welcomed his "sweetheart" and "darling" daughter, so that the interior decoration of the tomb was a veritable ode to daughter She died at the age of six. Octavia Paolina was placed in the niche axis with the entrance, in a sarcophagus with chest decorated with scenes of sports competitions among children.
To the world of children's project, was also inspired by the fresco, preserved today in the Museo Nazionale Romano, on which stands a glimpse of the Elysian Fields populated by children at play, and to gather roses gigantic, in the presence of Hermes (the god of the dead); also uses the motif of roses on top of the walls, which are contrasted, below, the skirting painted faux marble and mosaic floor white, circumscribed by a double black band.
Two other women's remains were received in the side niches within fine sarcophagi decorated with marine scenes: an allusion to the journey to the afterlife. Felix Octavius was buried underground in the middle of the room, into a simple sarcophagus scrubbed with table showing his name and that of freedman who compassionately took care of interment. This is the sarcophagus still preserved in the hypogeum; Pauline is one of today in Milan, in a private collection; one of the two sarcophagi with marine scenes is at the Museo Nazionale Romano Palazzo Massimo, while the other is located in a corridor at the Ministry of Education.
