Ipogeo dei Volumni 

(late 3rd to early 1st century BC)            

The hypogeum of the Velimna (in Latin, Volumni) family was discovered in 1840 at what proved to be the edge of the Palazzone Necropolis. 

The modern flight of steps that now leads down to the hypogeum replaces the original sloping passage that led to a door frame closed by a travertine slab.  The inscription that can still be seen on the right door jamb of the entrance identifies the brothers Arnth and Larth Velimnas as the founders of the tomb.

The layout of the hypogeum is similar to that of an Etruscan villa:

• You enter the large central atrium, the ceiling of which imitates a pitched wooden roof. 
  

• The room beyond corresponds to the tablinum (dining room) and still contains the seven urns (see below) discovered in 1840.   The relief above the entrance depicts a medusa between dolphins.
  

• There were two smaller rooms to each side of the tablinum and two more directly off each side of the atrium. 
  

Each of the inner rooms has a coffered ceiling and a shelf carved into the rock on which urns could be placed.  [Two of them have Medusa's heads in shields on the ceiling, and a crested snake projecting from the wall.  One of these rooms has an owl in relief in each corner, and a snake's head below it. Expand]

The layout of the hypogeum is a more elaborate version of that to the Ipogeo dei Cai Catu, which suggests that it might have been constructed in the late 3rd century BC.  No urns were found in any of the smaller rooms, and they seem never to have been occupied.  Indeed, some of them were never finished.  It seems that the founders of the hypogeum expected that it would remain in use for many generations, but that these expectations were not realised, presumably because of the dislocation caused by the civil wars in the 1st century BC.  

Very few grave goods were found in the hypogeum in 1840, which suggests that it had been violated at an earlier date.

Cinerary Urns in the Tablinum

The tablinum contains seven urns, six of which are made of travertine covered with stucco decoration.  In each of these, the ashes are interred in a high pedestal, with the deceased reclining (or in one case sitting) above and identified by an Etruscan inscription. 

Arnth Velimnas, son of Aule

This urn at the centre of the back wall is the finest of the seven and belonged to one of the two founders of the tomb.  Arnth (like his male relatives to the right) is shown on the lid, reclining on an elaborate couch, as if at a banquet.  Two winged demons that are carved in deep relief on the front of the urn guard the frescoed door to Hades, where figures of his ancestors (badly damaged) wait to greet him. 

Male Relations of Arnth Velimnas

The four urns to the right belong to male relatives of Arnth.  Proceeding clockwise, these are identified as:

• Vel and Larth Velimnas, sons of Aule and thus Arnth's brothers;

• Aule Velimnas Thephrisa Nuphrznal, who was probably the father; and

• Thephri Velimnas Tarchis Clan, who was probably the grandfather.

Larth was the  co-founder of the hypogeum, but the position of his urn suggests that he died after his (presumably younger) brother Vel.  The urns of Vel, Larth and Aule are very similar: each of these men reclines (like Arnth) on the lid of his urn, so that they seem to be sharing a meal. 

The urn of Thepri is much simpler and is oddly detached near the entrance to the tablinum, which suggests that it was moved here from its original location. 

Veilia Velimnei Arnthial

The urn to the left of that of Arnth belongs to his unmarried daughter, who sits upright at table in the Roman manner.  (It is interesting to note that, unlike the Greeks, the Etruscans included women at their formal banquets.  However, they are usually shown reclining). 

Publius Volumnius, son of Aulus

The next urn to the left is quite distinct from the others in the hypogeum.  It is made from Luna marble and takes the form  of a Roman temple.  The motifs used to decorate it seem to have been inspired by those on the inner walls of the Ara Pacis (altar of peace) in Rome, which was dedicated in 9BC.  The urn was probably made in Rome at about this time.

The urn has a Latin inscription on the lintel of the door to the fictive temple and an Etruscan one on the pitched roof.  These identify the deceased as:

P[UBLIUS] VOLUMNIUS A[ULI] F[ILIUS] VIOLENS  CAFATIA NATUS PUP[LI] VELIMNA AU[LE] CAHATIAL

The Etruscan Pupli Velimnas, son of Aule also used a Latin form of his name - Publius Volumnius, son of Aulus.  The Latin "Cafatia natus" reveals that his mother was called Cafatia, and "Cahatial" must have had the same meaning in Etruscan.  The new addition to his name in Latin is the  cognomen "Violens". 

An inscription that was preserved in San Francesco delle Donne until 1815 (now number 245 in the upper loggia of the large cloister of the Museo Archeologico) relates to another  Publius Volumnius Violens: this man was the son of Publius and had served as quattuorvir and then duovir.  This change in the form of the Perugian magistracy probably occurred in 89BC, when Perugia became a municipium.  It may well be that the family Latinised its name at that point.  It is interesting to note that it adopted the cognomen of Volumnius Violens, who had been a Roman consul in 307 BC and again in 296 BC. 

Publius, son of Publius, who probably died some fifty years before Publius son of Aule was not commemorated in the family hypogeum.  Nor were their respective fathers.  Indeed, the hypogeum seems to have been unused for most of the 1st century BC, presumably because the family was adversely affected by the civil wars that afflicted Italy for much of this period.  Publius son of Aule seems nevertheless to have survived and to have prospered in Rome, presumably after the victory of the Emperor Augustus in 38 BC had finally brought peace to the peninsular.  He still had access to the closed family hypogeum in Perugia and chose to be commemorated in it after his death.  He was first of his family to be so commemorated for perhaps four generations and, as it happens, he was also the last.