Life and Death in the Roman Suburb

Abstract

A Roman city was a bounded space. Defined by borders both physical and conceptual, the city stood apart as a concentration of life and activity that was divided from its rural surroundings not only physically, but also legally, economically, and ritually. Death was a key area of control, and tombs were relegated outside city walls from the Republican period through Late Antiquity. Given this separation, an unexpected phenomenon marked the Augustan and early Imperial periods: Roman cities developed suburbs, built-up areas beyond their boundaries, where the living and the dead came together in environments that could become densely urban. Life and Death in the Roman Suburb examines these districts, drawing on the archaeological remains of cities across Italy to understand their character and to illuminate the factors that led to their rise and decline, with a particular focus on the tombs of the dead. Work on Roman cities still tends to pass over funerary material, while research on death has concentrated on issues seen as separate from urbanism. This book aims to reconnect those threads, considering tombs within their suburban landscapes of shops, houses, workshops, garbage dumps, extramural sanctuaries, and major entertainment buildings to trace the many roles they played within living cities. It argues that tombs were not passive memorials, but active spaces that both facilitated and furthered the social and economic life of the city, where relationships between the living and the dead were an enduring aspect of urban life.

Reimagining urban success: rhythms of activity at Gabii, 800 BC–AD 600

“…From the first to third centuries AD, as Rome expanded and extended its (sub)urban sphere far out into Latium (Emmerson 2020), the occupied area of Gabii contracted and became concentrated along its main thoroughfare. This type of reduction in the overall extent of a city, either through contraction or the abandonment of individual neighbourhoods, has often been interpreted as an unambiguous sign of decline (see the concept of 'shrinking cities' in, for example, Oswalt 2005).…”

“…Excavations elsewhere in the city have recovered more than a dozen roughly contemporaneous tombs (Majerini & Musco 2001: 493;Glisoni et al 2017). While intramural burial is often cited as a violation of Roman religious and legal norms, the practice is well attested within both urban and suburban environments in Italy (Emmerson 2020), as cities extend beyond their walls and their formal limits blur. We can see an inverse yet complementary process at Gabii.…”

Experiencing gloomy Dis: Tombs, tunnels and the phenomenology of the Roman Underworld in the Phlegraean Fields

“…The ideology of social display was deeply embedded in concerns about memory: in the Roman world to be seen was to be remembered (Graham 2006). An emphasis on visibility played a key role in sustaining memory within a household and the wider community and establishing an individual’s, household’s, or other group’s place within society through their location, design, iconographic and epigraphic embellishments (Hope 2000; Carroll 2006, 16; Zanker and Ewald 2012, 176; Emmerson 2020, 80–1). The association between commemoration and visibility is therefore of principal importance and provides a framework for investigating the placement of burials.…”

“…Existing work has explored the spatial relationship between Roman tombs and the transport network of Roman Italy and beyond. In particular, scholars have examined halos of burial sites along the major roads in/out of towns, often terming these funerary agglomerations Gräberstrassen (on tomb‐streets, see Von Hesberg and Zanker 1987; Emmerson 2020 provides a useful recent reevaluation). These tomb‐streets, most common around the cities of central Italy, formed public, highly visual focal points for commemoration.…”

"Até que a morte nos separe..."

“…Podemos fazer referência a alguns autores, os quais pesquisam temáticas vinculadas às práticas mortuárias e suas relações com a ostentação e a perpetuação dos mortos:Huskinson (2011);Campbell (2015);Feraudi-Gruénais (2015);Borg (2019); Omena e Funari (2020); Petersen (2020);Emmerson (2020), entre outros autores.5 Como não é o foco das nossas discussões, pelo menos, neste artigo, é importante referenciarmos alguns títulos sobre a infância na Antiguidade:Rawson (1999);Huskinson (2007); Harlow (2013); Vuolanto (2014); Carroll (2018); Borg (2019); Pinto (2020); Shepherd (2020); Gonçalves (2020); Omena (2020); Silva (2020), entre outros mais. 6 Para outras informações sobre os epitáfios e inscrições epigráficas no Mediterrâneo romano, consultar: Kappie (2002); Brunn e Edmondson (2015); Chioffi (2015); Remesal (2016) etc.…”