Housing the Dead: the tomb as house in Roman Italy - Divinity School

Nevertheless, compared to the competitive diversity of the Pompeian streets, there seems little
attempt to catch the eye of the passer-by. The one pyramid at the Isola Sacra is not, like that of
Sestius in Rome, a conspicuous monumentum aere perennius, but a modest miniature.
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In a word, there seems to have been another flip-round in the relative importance of the external and
internal function. Valerius Herma’s tomb is a powerful illustration because of the sheer richness of
its internal decoration (on it see Toynbee and Ward-Perkins 1956, 82-87; Eck 1987, 71-73; Mielsch
and von Hesberg 1995, 143-208; Gee forthcoming, Figs 26-27) The magnificent stucco work
enriches an internal architecture elegantly articulated with niches, and ranges statues of the gods
and philosophers, and of Valerius Herma, his wife, daughter, son and perhaps patron. As in
Pompeii, there is a close relationship between the presentation outside, in the form of an inscription,
and that inside. From outside, we meet the family:
C Valerius Herma fecit et
Flaviae T.f. Olympiadi coiugi et
Valeriae Maximae filiae et C Valerio
Olympiano filio et suis libertis
libertabusque posterisque eorum.
The classic nuclear family grouping is extended, just as at Pompeii and across Italy, by the generic
grouping of freedmen and freedwomen and their descendants.
But it is only inside that we can get a grip on the family. Flavius Herma presents himself repeatedly,
almost obsessively (Eck 1987). The marble panel of his sarcophagus reintroduces himself and his
wife:
C Valerius Herma dum
vivo mihi feci et
Flaviae T.f. coiugi.
The lettering is elegant, the grammar a touch uncertain (‘dum vivo’ combines the dative of ‘vivo
mihi feci’ with the fragmentary clause ‘dum vivus eram’). He introduces himself again on his son’s
sarcophagus:
C Valerio Olympiano qui vixit
annis IIII menses V dies XIII
C Valerius Herma pater.