View Page: Freedmen Tombs of Pompeii

	Freedmen Tombs of Pompeii
	written by julia625 / 10.12.2005

Section Three

3 of 9

History of Pompeii

Describe

Photo taken by Julia Olson

Tomb filled Street of Pompeii

As you can see, there was no one style for tombs. On this street, leading out of Pompeii, tomb styles range from geometrical shapes to house tombs.

As in the rest of Italy, an obvious social hierarchy was prevalent in the small town of Pompeii and was evident in every day life. This town is located nearly 2 miles from the shore of the Bay of Naples and nearly at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius. Pompeii was first occupied in the 8th century BC by the Etruscans. This occupation lasted throughout the 5th and 6th centuries BC. After the Etruscans came the Saminites who turned Pompeii into a pure Greek town. Their reign ended when the Romans took control of Pompeii around 200 BC. The Romans retained control over Pompeii until the fateful day in 79 AD when Mt Vesuvius erupted. At this time there were approximately 20,000 people residing in Pompeii. Although almost all inhabitants were killed, the ash from the eruption preserved the entire town exactly how it was in its last moments. From this preserved town, we have been able to study almost all aspect of Roman life in Pompeii from lifestyles to how they buried their dead.

Burying the dead inside of the city was forbidden in Pompeii, as it was in most Roman cities. As a result, the patrons of the city resorted to the next most conspicuous place to lay their dead to rest; the roads leading into the city. By building tombs to commemorate their dead alongside the road, the citizens of Pompeii hoped that passerby’s would see and appreciate the wealth and nobility of a certain person/family. Although there were other ways to bury the dead, such as cremating and storing the ashes in a columbarium (a large tomb maintained by the local funeral group with niches dedicated to certain people/families), one of the “hot spots” to place a tomb was a road known as the ‘Street of Tombs’ leading out of Pompeii to the nearby town of Herculaneum. Wealth and social status were very important parts of society and as a result the prime spots (largest and closest to the city walls) were often taken by the elite. Those with lesser means were forced to squeeze their tombs in between two larger ones, go further down the road, or set them back off the road. The reason that the spots closest to the gate were more desirable was logical; the tombs closest to the entrance of the city would be the last thing a traveler would see before he entered and the first thing he saw before he left. In this way the deceased, and their family, would be honored every time someone entered or exited through the gate.

<< Section Two

[ View All Pages ] [ Back to top ]

Section Four >>