Death as the great leveler. Mosaic from Pompeii, now in

Naples, Archaeological Museum.

Death in Rome

Republic to Empire:• 8th-6th cen. BCE:

Legendary kings of Rome

• The Roman empire “officially” founded 21st April, 753 BCE

• In 509 BC, the last king is deposed and the first system of democracy is imposed

Nature and Structure of the Roman Empire:

On Octavian (Augustus):• Sets up a “restoration”

of Empire• Takes pre-emptive

political, military and religious powers

• Ushers in the Roman Principate

Nature and Structure of the Roman Empire:

Nature and Consequences of Empire:

• Immense wealth from conquest

• the Pax Romana• a military state; practices

such as decimation• strong economy based on

slavery, agriculture, trade

Nature and Structure of the Roman Empire:

Life in the City:• Civic overcrowding• Life (and death) in a public

culture• Construction of funerary

collegia (sing.: collegium)

Nature and Structure of the Roman Empire:

Life in the City:• Civic overcrowding• Life (and death) in a public

culture• Construction of funerary

collegia (sing.: collegium)

Nature and Structure of the Roman Empire:

Scene of imperial apotheosis, Hadrianic period (ca. 138

CE, Rome)

Life in the City:• The funeral and theatrical

display

Nature and Structure of the Roman Empire:

Roman sarcophagus featuring husband and wife with the muses and theatrical masks. Third quarter of the second century, Rome, Vatican Museums.

Sarcophagus fragment: naked boy holds an animal by the tail and a garland of fruit surrounding tragic masks.Roman, 130-40 CE.Berlin, Pergamon Museum.

The Muses with masks, 280-290 CERome: Museo Massimo: relief on the side of a sarcophagus from St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Sarcophagus of boy, featuring putti as muses.Rome, Vatican Museum, Gallery of the Candelabrum.

Poet reads from scroll to Thalia, muse of Comedy; detail,

Roman, 180-200 CE.Phrygian marble, part of

front of columnar sarcophagus.

From the Gardens of Pompey, Rome. London, British Museum.

Sarcophagus relief of muses and poets.Vatican Museum, Rome.

Sarcophagus of Iunius Euhodius and Metilia Acte. 168-189 CE, Ostia. Now in the Vatican museums.

Death as the great leveler. Mosaic from Pompeii, now in

Naples, Archaeological Museum.

Death in Rome