Tomb of Flavius Zeuxis
About
One tomb among the roughly 1,200 that line Hierapolis's necropolis belonged to Flavius Zeuxis, a merchant whose epitaph boasted of sailing around Cape Malea to Italy seventy-two times over his trading career. Historians cite the inscription as some of the best direct evidence for how often Roman-era ships actually made the run between the Aegean and Italy.
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
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