Ministero per i Beni
e le Attivitą Culturali

Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici
dell'Emilia Romagna

The Mausoleum of Rufus

It is one of the better preserved and more relevant examples of roman cuspidate aedicula monuments, that can be found in different forms in a lot of italian regions and in some transalpine countries between the 1^st century b.C. and the 1^st century a.C.
The prototype this architectural typology is inspired by is the big sepulchre built during the first half of the 4^th century b.C. in honour of the king Mausolo from Alicarnasso, in Turkey, from who the word "mausoleum" comes.
The shape of a temple gives the tomb a deep sacred and heroic value.
In the hellenistic age, this model spread in Greece and in a part of the Mediterranean area, reaching the south of Italy and then the roman world.
Its main components are the big base with a dedicatory inscription, the median part in the shape of a templar cella with columns and a false interior door which symbolises the heaven’s door, and the cuspidate, pyramidal roof.

The Rufus sepulchre (Room V) was erected in the middle of the Augustan Age ( at the end of the 1^st century b.C.) in the monumental area of the necropolis of Pian di Bezzo, above a cinerary made of sandstone; for its complete reconstruction inside the museum, archaeologists mostly used original parts made of calcareus stone, found during the excavation.
The monument has a square base of 4,26 m. for each side and it is 13,35 m. high. The cubic platform is divided by a meander frieze and crowned by a Doric frieze with flowers; on the frontal part you can see the dedicatory inscription that in origin showed the names of four people, while nowadays we are able to read only Rufus’ one.
In the upper part there is the median templar cella with a false door and four Corinthian columns, which carry a pediment with a vegetal frieze; between the columns there are the draped statues of the dead named in the epigraph, even if only one of them has really been buried there.
On the top of the monument, which has a cuspidate, pyramidal shape, there are four sphinxes, that should ideally protect the sepulchre, and the monumet is crowned by a final capital, which is the base of a false, round, cinerary vase with snout heads.

Mosaic: "The Tryumph of Dionysus"

The big mosaic (room V), reconstructed on a wall, originally belonged to a large domus discovered in 1966 in the city centre, in the south of the actual Via Roma; the roman domus was located in an area in the west of the  ancient forum, the main square of Sassina, partly corresponding to the actual Piazza Plauto.
The excavation allowed to find a big part of the residential building, erected in the Republican age, restored and enlarged more than once during the Imperial age, and populated untill the second half of the 3^rd century a.C. , when it was destroyed by a violent fire. Because of this event, the architectural structures and the rich furnishings have been preserved under the ruins ( other section of the floors and part of the interior decorations are exposed on the upper floor of the museum in rooms D and E).

The mosaic ( 8,90 x 6,30 m.) decorated a big, entertainment room, probably a summer triclinium, situated in the middle of the domus.
The three sides of the dining room, devoid of decorations, were reserved for the fellow-diner beds.
The mosaic, which dates back to the beginning of the 3^rd century a.C. , shows a figured composition made of stone pieces and a glassy paste.
On the top, there is a hunting scene in black and white, which corresponds to the entrance of the room in the domus.
The middle, polychrome part is surrounded by a frame with a vegetal frieze representing leaves of acanthus, and it shows different, Dionysiac subjects.
In the centre ,in the main circle, there is Dionisus on a chariot drawn by two tigers, accompanied by Pan and a young Satyr.
All around it there are exotic animals and the winged heads of the four winds, located on the corners.
In the side panels, you can see six pictures with six characters , friends of Dionysus: Pan, Sileno, Menadi and Satyrs.
This big mosaic is particularly interesting for its style , which can hardly be found  in other parts of Italy, and also for its dating, which confirms that Sarsina was not affected by the economic crisis of that period.

The Monument of Publius Verginius Paetus

In room IV there is the monument of Publius Verginius Paetus. This kind of sepulchre widely spread in a big part of Italy, during the 1^st century b.C. , as funerary monument to pay honour to important members of the local aristocracy, celebrated through the dedicatory inscription which was often accompanied by figures in relief.
The structure is characterized by the cubic shape of the median part, which is situated on a base framed and decorated in the superior part by a Doric frieze with flowers and oxen’s heads.
The calcareous slabs found in Pian di Bezzo enabled to reconstruct almost completely the architectural body of the monument, erected on the cinerary urn of Verginius Paetus during the last twenty years of the 1st century b.C., in the middle of the Augustan Age.
The structure, which is 3,50 m. wide, is surrounded and articulated by frames and architectural divisions, decorated by a Doric frieze with flowers.
In the upper part of the front  there is the inscription which shows the names of the Paetus family and reminds of Verginius' militar rank of tribunus militum a populo;
Underneath there are, in relief, the symbols of the offices hold by the dead during his career in the army and as a magistrate of the Municipality of Sarsina.
Near the sepulchre  you can see three big shrines made of sandstone where you could find, kept in metal containers, the cinerary, alabatser urns of Paetus and of two other relatives buried near the monument.

MOSAIC OF ERCOLE EBBRO

In room E, situated on the first floor of the museum, there are numerous finds recovered in 1988 during an archaeological excavation between via Roma and via Finamore. 
These finds belonged to a rich house (domus), placed west of the forum. 
The building was built during the first half of the I century b.C. (Repubblican Age) and restored at the end of the II century a.C.
In the second half of the III century a.C. a fire destroyed the building but, at the same time, permitted the preservation, under the ruins, of a large part of the flooring and of the household furnishing.

On the corner of the room you can see the mosaic that, on the occasion of the renovation made at the end of the II century a.C., redecorated the flooring of a small dining room (triclinium).
On the threshold, in black and white, a triton hauled by a hippocampus and followed by a dolphin is represented; in the central scene, a polychrome picture with Hercules inebriated (ebbro) and staggering, supported by a Satyr, is surrounded by panels with other sea beings and, on the corners, the heads of the four seasons.

The planimetry of the private, roman houses did not have a fixed plan but constant was the presence of some rooms, connected with the symbolic function of the various places. The "triclinium", for example, was a dining room. Its name comes from the triple bed on which, according to the greek style, the guests lay. These beds were arranged around a table.
The triclinium with the function of a dining room existed only since the I century b.C.: in the first Repubblican period the roman family used to ate in the foyer which was the main room of the domus. The dominus ate while lying, the women and the children sitting and the slaves standing at the foot of the bed.

The triclinium was usually in the internal part of the house and, through a big door, it overlooked the peristyle or the garden, enabling the guests to enjoy an outwards view. In a more ancient age, the beds were made of stone and were disposed and welded around the three walls void of door. In the middle, fixed and almost welded between the beds, you could find the stone, rectangular table. The beds were equipped with a mattress and many cushions where the guests could lie, leaning on their left arm, while eating with the other one. The food, previously cut, was served by the slaves on silver trays.
Around the second half of the I century b.C. the stone beds were replaced by wooden or metal ones. The stone beds were still used in the open-air triclinia rooms. In these open-air rooms, three legged, round tables, made of wood or metal, replaced the less-handy ones.
The triclinia beds were very similar to the normal beds, even if they were longer: they were in fact used by more than one person. The most luxurious ones had bronze or silver decorations, applied on the side facing the centre of the room. The triclinia rooms are characterized by a particular kind of flooring: mosaic floorings, such as the one exposed, represent the most decorated central part of the room, which usually corresponded to the table. The sides, sheltered by the roof, have simpler patterns or are devoid of decorations.

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