http://www.060608.it/en/cultura-e-svago ... niana.html
http://www.storialibera.it/epoca_antica ... hp?id=2893Another important sepulchre is that of the Iulii, whose frescoes depict Christian themes such as Jonah in the jaws of a whale and the Good Shepherd, while in the vault is a mosaic depicting Jesus Christ riding the Sun’s chariot, like the pagan god Apollo. Afterwards, the space of the necropolis was occupied by other tombs, even though the major part of the Christian sepulchres were in the western part, where is a small rectangular square surrounded by mausoleums built around what was identified as Peter’s tomb, near the arena where the apostle was martyred.
In 1998, the Vatican authorities ordered an assessment and restoration of the necropolis uncovered beneath St. Peter's basilica.
The latest tomb to be restored was unveiled a few days ago, on Wednesday, May 28. It is the largest and most sumptuous of those that have been unearthed. It was built early in the second half of the second century, during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, by the prominent Valerii family of Rome. In addition to statues of family members, philosophers, and divinities, there is a bust of a pretty young girl and another, in gilded plaster, of a boy wearing the headdress typical of the devotees of Isis.
Almost all of the 22 tombs of the necropolis are pagan, with traces of oriental cults. The only completely Christian one is that of the Iulii family. Its vault boasts a marvelous mosaic depicting Christ as the Sun, in the manner of Apollo, ascending to heaven on a chariot drawn by white horses, holding the earth in his left hand. On the walls are images of the Good Shepherd, of Jonah being swallowed by the sea monster, and of a fisherman throwing into the waves a hook that one fish is swallowing while another swims away, a symbol of the souls that accept or reject salvation.