The Porta di Nola gate, built at the end of one of the main town roads, is situated on the edge of the hill of Pompeii. It is a square-shaped gate with two projecting structures, a barrel vault, and an effigy of Minerva on the inside.
A necropolis was found at the foot of the town walls outside the gate where excavation work has uncovered several particularly interesting burial monuments. There are three tombs, two of which are semicircular exedrae made of tuff stone from nearby Nuceria with two paws of winged lions poised on the far ends. As can be read on the inscription, one tomb belonged to the wife of a duumvir, Aesquillia Polla, who died at the age of 22.
The other tomb is surrounded by a wall, inside which there was the cinerary urn made of glass and the hole for the libations to the deceased. Marcus Obellius Firmus, who had been elected several times to the position of town administrator, was buried here while his house was situated not far from the Porta di Nola gate.
In the same part of the town archaeologists found an area which presumably was where the deceased were cremated, in addition to four graves - identified by the funerary steles - of Pretorian soldiers stationed in Pompeii.
Gallery 3
