ABSTRACT
Disposal of the dead was a relatively simple matter in early Republican Rome. In the fifth and first half of the fourth centuries Before the Common Era (BCE), stone- or tile-lined pits carved out of the living tufo sufficed to contain the deceased (Barbera et al. 2005, Lanciani 1875, Taloni 1973, Albertoni 1983, Bartoloni 1987, Colonna 1996). No grand memorials marked burial spots, perhaps because sumptuary laws imposed limits on funerary display (Cicero, De Legibus 2.23.58–59). 1 The mid-fourth and third centuries saw the individualisation of elite tombs as display practices changed, and by the end of the second century, tombs could be substantial monuments in the urban landscape. By the first century their numbers had increased dramatically, and they came in a wide range of shapes and sizes, vying for attention through external appearance (von Hesberg 1992). Two well-known tombs stand out for their sheer magnificence (not to mention their relatively good state of preservation): the Tomb of the Scipios and the Tomb of Caecilia Metella. Both are prominently located on the Via Appia of 312, the earliest major road leading out of Rome; both are monumental in scale, and judging by extant archaeological evidence, both incorporate features that seem designed to augment and control a viewer’s experience. These features are the main focus of inquiry here: this chapter suggests a cultural framework for their deployment. After a brief description of the two monuments, I trace the evolution of a concept of theatricality in Roman architecture and society, and propose that the patrons of these tombs harnessed this concept in the service of political self-promotion. In a culture that controlled public commissions tightly, both men seem to have recognised the peculiar advantage of funerary art, as later Romans would also: these privately-funded, privately-conceived monuments were nevertheless part of public display, and offered unusual propagandistic potential and freedom of self-representation.
