VGSC Pompeii. Tombs at Porta Vesuvio. Cippus of Titus Suedius Clemens.

VGSC Pompeii Porta Vesuvio. May 2006. Cippus of Titus Suedius Clemens.

VGSC Pompeii Porta Vesuvio. May 2006. Cippus of Titus Suedius Clemens.

VGSC Pompeii Porta Vesuvio. May 2006. Cippus of Titus Suedius Clemens.

VGSC Pompeii Porta Vesuvio. May 2006. Cippus of Titus Suedius Clemens.

The Cippus has a Latin inscription reading -

Ex auctoritate

imp(eratoris) Caesaris

Vespasiani Aug(usti)

loca publica,

a privatis possessa T(itus) Suedius

Clemens tribunus causis cognitis

Et mensuris factis rei publicae

Pompeianorum restituit 

This translates as -

By virtue of authority conferred upon him by the Emperor Vespasian Caesar Augustus,

Titus Suedius Clemens, tribune, having investigated the facts and taken measurements,

restored to the citizens of Pompeii public places illegally appropriated by private persons.

Similar Cippi were found at the Porta Ercolano, Porta Marina and the Porta Nocera.

The wording “rei publicae Pompeianorum” on one of these, discovered in 1763, was the first positive identification that the site was Pompeii.

Until then scholars had divided opinions on the city buried under Cività.  Many, including the first official excavators, thought it was the ancient city of Stabiae.

See Conticello, B., Ed, 1990. Rediscovering Pompeii. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider. (p. 225).