Abstract:

This paper present a new photogrammetric reconstruction of the burial feature known as the Tower of the Scipios raised adjacent to the Via Augusta 6 km northeast of Tarraco. The previous published restitution of the funerary carmen on a tabula ansata identifies the tomb as a cenotaph. Moreover, its decorative elements made of local stone date the feature to the turn of the era. However, the two images of Atis decorating its frontal are exceptional in this timeframe. The discovery in Mataró of a funerary plaque of the first five-year duumviri of the Iluronense municipality of L. Marcio Optato, a member of the equestrian order who met his death in Phrygia, offers fundamental evidence as Marcio is cited as an aedile in Tarraco before assuming his remaining cursus honorum. The artefact would place his family in Tarraco where they were obliged to pay tribute to his memory by raising another monumentum. This also clearly explains the choice of the representation of Attis, the funerary deity of Phrygia and all of Asia Minor.