Tomb of the Triclinium
About
This painted chamber at Tarquinia depicted a symposium of banqueters reclining on couches beneath garlands, its ochre and blue pigments giving the tomb its modern name after the Roman dining arrangement the scene resembles. The original frescoes were later detached for conservation, but the excavated rock-cut chamber 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 →