Family, memory and death in the tomb inscriptions of Mediolanum (I-II AD)

Resumo

Considering contemporary studies on attitudes towards death and the dead, we will consider, given the documentary, thematic and historical relevance, some epitaphs for females present in the region of Mediolanum, the modern city of Milan. We know that, although we do not have remains of necropolises, as in Isola Sacra, the mortuary evidences present at Civico Museo Archeologico di Milano exhibit a wide range of stone stelae, lastras of funeral monuments with stone garlands, marble funeral altars and urns, highlighting the richness of a region known, at the time of 49 BC, as municipium ciuium romanorum. In this respect, it becomes relevant to analyze, for example, a gorgeous stela, dated between the last years of the second century AD, as a rare testimony of a woman who, undoubtedly, with a strong personality, commissions the funeral monument to her relatives. Thenceforth, we understand that the epitaphs immortalized the deceased as well as stimulated the pietas of their relatives. Thus, in referring to the sepulchral epigraphy, we emphasize the connections and symbology between written and spoken words, for, thus conceived, ritual repetition evoked the memory of the deceased.