The tomb has a circular plan, it consists of a cylinder (with a diameter of about 34m and 16 m high) with a cement centre covered by a facing of travertine blocks. The covering was most probably made from a conical mound of earth.
At the center of the main front, there is an inscription carved in a slab of marble which attributes the mausoleum to a wealthy member of the Gens Lucilia: Lucilio Peto. He was a military tribune and the prefect of the blacksmiths and knights, when he was still alive, for himself and for his sister Lucilia Polla.
This type of tomb was very common to the Augustinian period. The quality of the walls, the simplicity of the decorations, and the beauty of the characters in the inscription all suggest a date around the end of the first century BC.
The entrance to the mausoleum is at the back of the building. A vaulted corridor, covered by thin white plaster and paved with lime, leads to the burial chamber. This reveals a cruciform plan, covered by a perpendicular crossing, with three niches in which there are three funerary beds (only one of which remains) with a higher part on the right to support the head.
The mausoleum was later abandoned and during the period of Traiano, was almost completely buried. In the fourth century AD the building was however utilized again. A series of small, walled tombs were found placed along the external cylinder (they were destroyed during excavation) and internally, the mausoleum was transformed into a small catacomb.
|
 | |  | II Municipio
Via Salaria, 125 |  |
|