An ancient necropolis showing the burial rites of a wide variety of Roman society is set to open to the public in the bowels of St.Peter's .
The small pagan burial ground is believed to be the only one of its kind inside Rome's city walls .
"It brings the rich and poor together, the plebs and the nobles - but not the super-rich, the Imperial stars," said Vatican Museum Director Francesco Buranelli at the presentation of the cemetery, which becomes part of the Vatican's subterranean tourist offerings on Saturday .
Among the highlights of the site, unearthed during work on a hypermarket, is the grave of a slave of Nero, Alcimus, who worked as a stage director at the largest theatre in antiquity, the Theatre of Pompey - where Julius Caesar was slain .
There is also a one-year-old boy buried with the symbol of eternity, a marble egg, clutched in a tiny hand; a four-year-old boy whose delicate features exhibit a high degree of craftsmanship; a teenage girl depicted as a Vestal Virgin; and a 17-year-old member of the knightly classes who appears to have been a Christian .
This latter grave dates from before the Emperor Constantine made Christianity Rome's state religion in the Fourth Century, but it shows a figure kneeling in prayer - a symbol only used on Christian graves .
The site, which dates from the First to the Fourth Century AD, contains a wealth of funerary urns, sarcophagi and mosaics but no large monumental tombs - marking it as a cemetery used by all but the highest social classes .
"It's like a small Pompeii of tombs," said Vatican archaeologist Giandomenico Spinola .
The site, which lies under the right side of St.Peter's, will be linked to a larger necropolis uncovered during work on a Jubilee carpark .
Treading an undergound walkway, visitors will get an idea of the ancient burial sites on the Vatican hill, Buranelli said .
A warren of tunnels will enable visitors to reach the so-called Red Wall where the bones of St.Peter are believed to have been buried .
