Tomba della Vestale Cossinia

Congratulations to the Municipality of Tivoli which has restored an apparently insignificant monument to the protection and decoration and which is instead very important: it is in fact the ONLY SEPULCHER OF AN ANCIENT ROME VESTAL THAT HAS COME TO US. Cossinia, descendant of a noble family from Tiburtina, was destined to the priesthood of Vesta in Tivoli, but after completing the service she did not return home, she remained in the college until the last days of her life. In fact, she died at the age of 75 and the population attributed great honors to her for her sincere devotion to the care of the hearth, so much so that her body was carried inside her eternal home. In 1929, his funeral monument was found in Tivoli. An absolutely exceptional and unique case because so far there are no known tombs of vestals. The tomb looks like an altar raised on five travertine steps where another similar funerary complex was discovered beside it, under which the body of a woman was found buried in a marble sarcophagus. of bone with jewels, now visible in the museum of Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, dressed like the empress Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus, and therefore datable between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD The funerary monument is therefore also dated to this period and consequently also the burial which is inhumation and no longer for cremation. The monument was almost certainly completed by the statue of Cossinia who, as we learn from the epigraph, was originally from Tivoli and was the daughter of Lucio. She was buried there by the will of the senate after serving the goddess Vesta for sixty-two years. On the back of the monument two inscriptions: Undecies senis quod Vestae paruit annis hic sita virgo, manu peoples delata, quiescit L (ocus) D (atus) S (enatus) C (onsulto) For a long time it was believed that the remains of the body could belong to the priestess Cossinia, buried together with the kit and the doll (this in fact is still associated with Cossinia today), but the stylistic analyzes of the doll and the funerary inscription seem to belong to different phases . The hairstyle of the doll dates back to the third century AD, that of the inscription on the altar dates back to the first century AD. They would therefore be two different burials, perhaps pertinent to a larger burial ground. Not even the statue of Cossinia remains, which was lost or perhaps mutilated by Christian iconoclasm, like the statues of the other vestals. We do not know who this doll belonged to, but we would like to think, almost tenderly, of a young girl in a long priestly service who, until the end, wanted to take that one childhood object with her to the grave. dear, symbol of virginity and dedication to the goddess of the hearth. The monument is located in a park very close to the Tivoli station and can be visited for free.

Shame. Today 4 January 2020 the park is closed, despite the sign that says it is open every day from 9 to sunset

The monument, dedicated to the Vedtale Cossinia, has recently been restored and finally accessible every day. A small garden was also created leading to the monument. The monument is located in the street of the station. For those who come by train to Tivoli, before leaving, a visit to the monument costs nothing.

On the banks from the ancients a testimony of the ancient Roman and Tiburtino splendor. Congratulations to the administration for having re-evaluated this park kept in a state of neglect, unfortunately not all the signs of vandals could be canceled.

The tomb was discovered in 1929 following a landslide of the escarpment near the Aniene river. The sepulchral structure found in Tivoli represents the only example of a vestal tomb never found to date. In the excavations a burial of another woman's body was also found, with still white teeth, accompanied by an ivory doll and an amber casket: this doll is now kept in the National Roman Museum of Palazzo Massimo in Rome . For a long time "semi-abandoned" and subject to vandalism, the area was redeveloped and on 13 January 2018 the recovered "Vestal Park Cossinia" was inaugurated