Sepulcrum: C. Sulpicius Platorinus

The monumental clan tomb of the Sulpicii Platorini at the Transtiberine head of the *Pons Agrippae, immediately inside the Aurelian Wall, probably of late-Augustan date. Discovered and excavated during the construction of the modern Tiber embankments in 1880 (Lanciani, FUR pl. 4), it was reconstructed in the Museo Nazionale Romano in 1911 (Paribeni and Berretti). It was a squarish structure, 7.44 x 7.12 m in plan, raised on a travertine podium (Silvestrini 1987, 13 f., figs. 6-14c.; Richardson). Surviving are several inscriptions associated with the burials accommodated within the tomb, which date from the Augustan to Flavian periods (CIL VI 31761-68a). The building inscription over the entrance mentions C. Sulpicius Platorinus, who is widely accepted as the triumvir monetalis of 18 B.C. (CIL VI 31761), although the construction of the tomb could also be attributed to a grandson (Richardson). Blake assigned an Augustan date to the monument on the basis of its squared stone masonry, tile-brick facing, and the type of the concrete employed (see also, Lloyd 202). On the other hand, Silvestrini’s “complex analysis” of the inscriptions and his subsequent correction of Lanciani’s (127-30) hypothetical stemmata for the clan suggests a slightly post-Augustan date for the erection of the monument; he points to M. Artorius Geminus (praef. aer. mil. around A.D. 10) as the founder of the tomb and, using this epigraphic evidence, dates it to c. A.D. 20 (Silvestrini 1987, 35-54; id., LTUR 276). Reflecting upon the urban context of the monument, Lloyd (202) has convincingly demonstrated that this tomb was constructed as an immediate consequence of the building of *Pons Agrippae under Augustus. The burials of the Caepio family deposited in the same tomb confirm the importance of this urban zone and of the Augustan-period building activity in the area for the brickmaking industry of Rome. The tomb thus tentatively is dated to the last decade of Augustus’ reign.