Rome
Vatican officials this week began allowing the public to view a 2,000-year-old cemetery inside Vatican City that contains some of the best-preserved ancient Roman tombs ever discovered. The tombs, first unearthed three years ago when contractors were digging an underground parking garage, date from the era of Augustus (23 B.C. to A.D. 14) to that of Constantine (306–337). With its gorgeous frescoes and mosaic floors, the necropolis holds the remains of people from different social classes—a rarity. One tomb belongs to Alcimus, a slave of Nero’s, who according to his headstone designed theater sets at Pompeii. Another belongs to a middle-class letter carrier.
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