Necropolis at the Nocera Gate

The necropolis of the city of Pompei is a kind of city of the dead. The name "necropolis" itself is translated in Greek. Here were buried the richest and most powerful residents of the city. In Pompeii, as in other ancient Roman cities, cemeteries were located at the gates of the city. So the mausoleums and tombs are located and the Nola Gate, Herculanium Gate, the Vesuvian Gate. However, the most chic Necropolis ("city of the dead" in Greek) is located at the Nocera Gate.

The necropolis behind the gate of Nocera gate consists of a series of tombs, along the road Via Nocera. In the necropolis there are several types of tombs: chamber tombs, cubic tombs, altar tombs, adicula graves. They are arranged in chronological order from the early Republican period at the gates until the last years of Pompeii farther afield. Unlike today's cemeteries, which are located at some distance from major roads, the Roman cemeteries were quite noisy with a lot of pedestrians and carts that drove past the city of the dead. As proof of the large traffic, there are more than 180 graffiti painted and scratched on the tombs at the Nucer Gate, from political slogans to advertisements about the games in the Pompeii Amphitheater. These texts give a rare look at life behind the walls and show that this cemetery was in itself a separate block, although it was cut off from the city itself by protective walls.

Among the many monuments, the tombs of L. Seius Serapia, the tomb of L. Celius, the mausoleum of Vei Barhilla, the tomb of Eumachia, the tomb of the Tillia family (family tomb) and the tomb of M. Octavius and his wife Verthia Philumin are especially worth noting.