Riflessioni sull’iconografia funeraria lilibetana nell’età di Cicerone

Twenty-four, and possibly twenty-five painted stelae and aediculae were found, in different times, in the area of the necropolis of Lilybaeum (1903, 1974-1984), and further North, nearer to the ancient sea-shore (1895); most recently, two new entries enhanced the Museo Lilibeo (2009), beside two elements from decorated epitymbia. Despite previous scholarly opinions spread these artifacts over three centuries, as a whole, they can be assigned approximately to Cicero’s time. Some cross-cutting features, as a matter of fact, connect the stelae and the “Salinas” aediculae, and indicate that both date between the late 2nd and the late 1st century BC. Nevertheless, they constitue two neatly differentiated groups as for typology, iconography, epigraphic formulae, findspot, and most likely for function. So, they can give us a glimpse into the society and mentality of Lilybaeum in the Late Republican period.