Excavations undertaken in the 1970s at _Heraclea_ on the Collina del Castello in Lucania identified a cemetery area with two distinct groups of burials, dating to a transition phase between the late imperial and late antique periods. The two groups comprised a total of twelve tombs, and the grave goods can be subdivided into two macro-groups, those belonging to a ritual assemblage, primarily glass vessels, and those that were personal artefacts, pins and metal personal ornaments. The study of the grave goods, practically unpublished, offered the occasion for a re-reading of the city’s history during the imperial period, through a synthesis of the known archaeological documentation. Therefore, a series of unpublished data is presented alongside the cultural material, relating to the city’s occupation between the Augustan period and the 5th century A.D., when occupation appears to have ceased, only to be revived in the medieval period.