Tomb of the Servilii
About
A square concrete base topped by a drum of burial niches marked this family tomb of the Servilii on the Appian Way long before Maxentius built his circus around it two centuries later. Its funeral chamber still keeps traces of decorative stucco inside. Inscriptions and fragments naming the family surfaced in 1808 and were placed on public display at state expense. Raised in the Augustan era, it predates every later structure built around it.
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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