Roman spolia from necropolises and their reuse for reinforcing late antique city walls and for building edifices of the modern era in Pula

The topography of Roman Pula established the existence of a large imperial necropolis stretching along the roads leading to and from the city. Necropolises were also situated between the Flavian road (via Flavia) and the seashore, west of the amphitheatre, following the roads leading to Trieste (Tergeste), Nezakcij (Nesactium), Medulin and Premantura (Promunturium Polaticum). In the turbulent period between the 4^th and the 6^th cc, the most luxurious part of the necropolis in front of the city gates was a source of construction material for the double reinforcements of the city walls and towers. What catches the eye even today on the outer side of the defensive structures are stone steps and smooth columns and their bases, architraves, friezes adorned with floral and figural motifs, which were built into the fundaments and lower parts of the external, then newly added and reinforced belt of fortifications encompassing the city. A part of the spolia from Roman necropolises along the roads leading to the suburbium (decorative stelae, tomb epigraphs, fragments of sarcophagi, column capitals) were built into public and private buildings throughout the 16^th to the 19^th century.