Roman Sepulchral Way
About
Outside Barcino's walls, along a minor road, roughly seventy tombs survive — cupae, urns, and stelae for slaves, freedmen, and working people, in stark contrast to the marble temple up on Mont Taber. Roman law forbade burial within the walls, so anyone entering the city from this direction in 117 CE would have passed row upon row of these graves; the necropolis is documented in continuous use from the 1st through the 3rd century CE, comfortably bracketing the snapshot.
What happened here
The dead are outside the walls because the law requires it, so the approach to every town is lined with them. Tombs face the road in rows, grand ones in front and simpler markers behind, all of them addressed to the passer-by. Burial clubs let ordinary people and slaves pay a monthly subscription for a place in a communal vault and a decent funeral; the alternative is a pit. Families come out on anniversaries and at the February festival, eat at the graveside, and pour wine into a pipe set into the ground. Undertakers, stonecutters and letter-cutters work nearby and compete on price. Ground is bought by the foot, and the frontage on the road costs the most.
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 →