Aquileia: The National Archaeological Museum



 



The National Archaeological Museum is located in the southern end of town,

on the corner of Via Giulia Augusta and Via Roma.
 

The museum consists of two parts, the main building and the lapidary galleries. The Museum was founded in 1882. Construction of the lapidary galleries began in 1898 and was completed in the 1950s with the addition of some storage rooms.

The national archaeological museum is open every day:

Monday from 8.30 to 2 PM. Tuesday-Sunday from 8.30 to 7 PM.
 

A covered walkway leads from the gate to the ticket office inside the main building.

The main building seen from Via Giulia Augusta.

Visitors are not allowed to use a camera inside the main building.

A tombstone in the garden surrounding the main building.
The Latin inscription includes some abbreviations.
The full text reads as follows:

Publius Barbius Publi filius
Vellina Marcellinus vivus fecit sibi et
Publio Barbio Vero filio
annorum XXIIII et
Barbiae Publi libertae Tyche
coniugi et
Publio Barbio Vediano
Firmo patri et
Rammoniae Marci filiae Ursae
libertis libertabusque
posterisque eorum
 

A partial view of the lapidary galleries in the garden.

 

A tombstone for a woman named Raia, who was - according to the
inscription - a former slave and a beautiful women: LIB stands for LIBERTA,
while VENUSTA means "beautiful."

The Latin inscription on this stone - discovered in 1885 - reads as follows:

 

Quintus Gavius Quinti libertus Secundus

et Vettidia Amoena

vivi fecerunt

sibi et communi liberto

Secundo liberto Optato liberto

 

The Latin inscription of this block reads as follows:

 

CANTIAE

SECUNDINA

PRISCILLA

DEDERUNT

 

 

The Latin inscription of this block reads as follows:

 

Lucio Apuleio

Maximiano

Decurioni

Aquileiae

Heredes

faciundum curaverunt

 

This stone block is broken; the left half has disappeared. Only the right half
has been preserved. Another inscription, found in Rome, is almost identical.
When scholars compare them, they can re-create the missing text.
It says Emperor Trajan has rebuilt a bath complex
which had been destroyed by fire. It is dated to AD 104 or 105.

 The missing parts of the text are marked in square brackets:

 

[Imperator Caesar divi Nerv]ae filius Nerva Traianus

[Germanicus Dacicus Pontifex M]aximus tribunicia potestate VIIII Imperator IIII

[consul V Pater Patriae thermas igne c]onsumptas a solo restituit

 

This tombstone for the Roman soldier Publius Fuficius

was erected by his brother Quintus Fuficius.

 

Publius Fuficius

Luci filius Camilia tribu

veteranus

legionis XV Apollinaris

annorum LIII

Stipendiorum XXIII

Quintus Fuficius

frater posit

 

Locus monumenti quo quo versus pedum XVI

 





Several stone blocks are scattered on the floor in a storage room.

 



 

Among the fragments, a relief of a young women.

 

The funerary monument for the Curii family, dated from the first half of the first
century AD, was found in 1883. Today it stands in the centre of the garden.
Its inscription recalls the four generations buried in the family grave.

The tombstone or stele of the Ramei family, dated from the second half of the first
century BC, was found in 1935 along the road that led north-east of Aquileia.
Below the bust of Publius Rameius Hilarus and his partner - whose name is not
revealed - there is the so-called "Door of Dite," which epitomises the passage
from life to death, from this world to the next one.

A pyramid made up of funerary urns. This arrangement was designed by Enrico
Maionica (1853-1916), who was the first director of the museum, and it has
continued since then. Each urn represents an old inhabitant of Aquileia.

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For more information about the museum please turn to chapter II of
Aquileia: History, Archaeology & Art, published by Bruno Fachin Editore in 2012.

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