In via della Stazione di Ottavia n. 73 a Roma, sotto il Villino Cardani, si conserva l’Ipogeo degli Ottavi, scoperto intorno al 1920, durante l’edificazione della periferia attorno al km. 9 della via Trionfale: il nuovo quartiere fu chiamato Ottavia in memoria dei personaggi di cui erano state rinvenute le sepolture all’interno dell’Ipogeo e i cui nomi erano incisi sui rispettivi sarcofagi: Octavia Paolina, suo padre Octavius Felix, ed altre due congiunte.
The hypogeum was built around the early 3rd century AD, serving some rustic villas in the area, characterized by a monumentality befitting the social position of the owner. The burial chamber was preceded by a vestibule frescoed with geometric motifs, connected to a long dromos (corridor) access carved into tuff, whose floor in opus spicatum brickwork is still preserved.
Contrary to Octavius’s expectations, who surely thought to bury his family members in order of seniority, the hypogeum first welcomed his “sweetest” and “dearest” little daughter, so much so that the internal decoration of the tomb was a true hymn to the little girl, who died at only six years old. Octavia Paolina was laid in the niche aligned with the entrance, in a sarcophagus whose chest was decorated with scenes of agonistic competitions among children.
The child’s world also inspired the fresco of the arcosolium, now preserved in the National Roman Museum, depicting a glimpse of the Elysian Fields filled with children playing and picking gigantic roses, in the presence of Hermes (god of the dead); the motif of roses also appears on the upper part of the walls, contrasted below by the painted faux marble baseboard and the white floor mosaic, bordered by a double black band.
Two other female remains were placed in the side niches, within refined sarcophagi decorated with marine scenes: an allusion to the journey to the afterlife. Octavius Felix was buried in the center of the hypogeum chamber, in a simple scraped sarcophagus with a plaque bearing his name and that of the freedman who piously took care of the burial. This is the only sarcophagus still preserved in the hypogeum; Paolina’s is now in Milan, in a private collection; one of the two sarcophagi with marine scenes is in the National Roman Museum of Palazzo Massimo, while the other is located in a corridor at the Ministry of Public Education.
