Francois Tomb
About
Discovered in 1857 near ancient Vulci, this chamber tomb carries an unusually large painted fresco cycle mixing mythological and historical scenes, including a rare depiction naming early Roman kings alongside Etruscan and Greek figures. The frescoes were detached and moved to Rome's Torlonia collection in the nineteenth century, but the rock-cut chamber itself remains at the site.
What happened here
Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →