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John Bodel calculates an annual death rate of 30,000 among a population of about 750,000 in the city of Rome, not counting victims of plague and pandemic. [10] At birth, Romans of all classes had an approximate life expectancy of 20–30 years: men and women of citizen class who reached maturity could expect to live until their late 50's or much longer, barring illness, disease and accident. [11]
A typical epitaph on a Roman funerary altar opens with a dedication to the manes, or the spirit of the dead, and closes with a word of praise for the honoree. [15] These epitaphs, along with the pictorial attributes of the altars, allow historians to discern much important information about ancient Roman funerary practices and monuments ...
The sacra publica were undertaken pro populo, i.e., collectively, (1) by the curia, pagi, or vici, into which the community was divided, whence such sacrifices were called sacra popularia; or (2) by the individual gentes and societies, i.e., the sodalitas, to which the superintendence of a particular cult had been committed by the State; or (3) by the magistrates and priests of the Roman State.
A copy of a Roman tombstone found in Chester (Deva Victrix) depicting Caecilius Avitus, an optio in the Legio XX Valeria Victrix. The Latin inscriptions on such tombstones can provide details on several aspects of life in the Roman army including: Age - Through the Latin 'ANNORUM', an age at death is often provided like in modern headstones.
In the burial practices of ancient Rome and Roman funerary art, marble and limestone sarcophagi elaborately carved in relief were characteristic of elite inhumation burials from the 2nd to the 4th centuries AD. [2] At least 10,000 Roman sarcophagi have survived, with fragments possibly representing as many as 20,000. [3]
Roman funerary art includes many portraits such as married couple funerary reliefs, which were most often made for wealthy freedmen rather than the patrician elite. Portrait sculpture from the Republican era tends to be somewhat more modest, realistic, and natural compared to early Imperial works.
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Other funerary and commemorative practices were very different. Traditional Roman practice spurned the corpse as a ritual pollution; inscriptions noted the day of birth and duration of life. The Christian Church fostered the veneration of saintly relics, and inscriptions marked the day of death as a transition to "new life". [115]