ABSTRACT
Funerary monuments are among the most evocative survivals from the Roman world; they number in the thousands and are found in most areas that came under Roman power. These monuments communicated, and continue to communicate, important messages about status, culture, power and identity, as well as attesting to the more personal and private world of grief and family life. Funerary monuments recall the Roman cemetery, its appearance, use and organization, but few actually survive in situ. Many stones were reused in later buildings, or were retrieved with scant regard to context; most are now displayed and stored in museums, lined up in tidy rows or as fragments cemented into walls. Putting these monuments and isolated pieces of stone back into the cemetery and understanding how each memorial related to its environment is not straightforward. Many questions remain unanswered: where was a specific monument situated? how visible was it? how did it compare to adjacent memorials? was it part of a larger group of related memorials? did it mark a cremation or inhumation grave? was it the focus for tomb cult?
