sione blocks, with semi-pillars scattered around the ruins and wih a massive boundary wall. The mausoleum dates back to the mid-third century AD, which provided a basis for its further identfication. The construction itself, made up of two segments, containing an underground crypt and a temple above around, shows that it S a mausoleum used to bury a very important high- ranking person. The fact that part of the mausoleum has the shape of a temple indicates that the person in question was related to gods and that the site served for daification. The historical events shaw that these territories were extremely troubled in the middle of the third cantury and that they were the ground for battles in which Roman emperors took part themselves. itis passible that the mausoleum belonged to the Roman emperor Hostilian, who i Some tine in Viminacium in 251 AD. Hostifian acceded to the thrane after the tragic deaths of his father, Traianus Decius and his brother, Herrenius Etruscus, who were both killed in an ambush on the Danube battle near the ancient city of Abritus, in present-day Bulgaria, An unprecedented event that a Roman emperor was slain in battle shocked Rome, because that was the first time in almost thousand years of Roman history that an emperor died in that way. Hostil legions in the territory from Germania all the way to where the Danube emplies into the Black Sea, which was prompted by the jan, during several months of 251 AD, carried aut strategic deployments of Rom dangers ca ping from the Gothic onslaught, as recounted by Zosimus, an author from the second half of the fith century and a senior state official under emperor Theodosius. Zosimus, who used older sources, such as the Greek historians Dexpos from the second century and Eunapius from the second half of the fourth century, wote that Caius Valens Hostiian stayad there for almost a whole year wth his mother Herenia Etrusciia. Even other sources like Aurelius Victor, Pseudo-Aurellus Victor and Eutropius, who all lived in the fourth century, wote that Hostiian deployed Roman troops on a vide expanse trom the central to the lower Danube River basin. Unfortunately, in November 251 AD, Hostilian died of plague. The place of his death vas not explicitly mentioned, but judging by all indications it was Viminacium, because it is not known that Hostilian left the territory of Viminacium, especially bearing in mind the danger of consolidation of miltary troops and possible attacks by barbarians on the frontier (mes) of the Tc ae to POF APE Brennen)