MONUMENTUM AURELIORUM
a tomb discovered in 1919 on the right of the via Labicana, close to the horti Torquatiani, on the south-east of the modern Viale Manzoni. It is almost certainly to be attributed to the period of the Severi. The name is given by an inscription in mosaic in the floor. The paintings of the subterranean interior, which are of great interest, have been variously interpreted; the latest authority, Wilpert (Mem. AP i. 2. 1-43) interprets them as Gnostic, but eclectic. The Sermon on the Mount is clear; but this, like the other scenes, e.g. the clothing of the naked and the feeding of the hungry, might deceive a pagan visitor into supposing that there was nothing Christian about the tomb. In the series of the Apostles a portrait of S. Peter (the earliest we have) and in the upper chamber representations of Adam and Eve may be clearly recognised.Cf. also NS 1920, 123-141; 1921, 230-234; Boll. d'Arte, 1921, 97; Mon. L xxviii. 289 sqq.; YW 1920, 85; 1922-3, 100; 1923-4, 107; 1924-5, 86-88; AA 1921, 111-114; 1926, 97, 98; Cecchelli, L'ipogeo eretico degli Aurelii (Rome, 1928), supposes that it may be Montanist.