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Through a study of tombs and burial customs in Rome and its surroundings, this volume demonstrates that the third century was an exciting period of experimentation and creativity, and that ambition continued to be a driving force in all social classes, who paved the way for the new system of late antiquity.
List of contents
- Preface
- List of Figures
- List of Plates
- Abbreviations
- 1: Introduction: The third Century
- 2: Traditional Cemeteries and Tombs
- 3: Innovation and New Designs
- 4: Underground Tombs
- 5: Long-Term Use and Re-Use
- 6: Sarcophagi
- 7: Sarcophagi in Context
- 8: Interior Decoration
- 9: Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Barbara E. Borg is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Exeter. She has worked on a wide range of topics, often linking her core subject Greek and Roman art and archaeology with neighbouring disciplines such as Egyptology, Classical Literature, Ancient History, and Geology.
Summary
Tombs and burial customs are an exquisite source for social history, as their commemorative character inevitably expresses much of the contemporaneous ideology of a society. This book presents, for the first time, a holistic view of the funerary culture of Rome and its surroundings during the third century AD. While the third century is often largely ignored in social history, it was a transitional period, an era of major challenges - political, economic, and social - which inspired creativity and innovation, and paved the way for the new system of late antiquity.
Barbara Borg argues that during this time there was, in many ways, a return to practices known from the Late Republic and early imperial period, with spectacular monuments for the rich, and a large-scale reappearance of collective burial spaces. Through a study of terraced tombs, élite monuments, the catacomb nuclei, sarcophagi, and painted image decoration, this volume explores how the third century was an exciting period of experimentation and creativity, a time when non-Christians and Christians shared fundamental ideas, needs, and desires as well as cemeteries, tombs, and hypogea. Ambition continued to be a driving force and a determining factor in all social classes, who found innovative solutions to the challenges they encountered.
Additional text
This ambitious and daring monograph on a deserving subject is likely to stimulate discussion among specialists in Roman funerary culture and imperial history, but it also provides a welcome synthesis for graduate students and scholars who look for an immersion in the funerary monuments and artistic conventions of the time period.
