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

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the finds are genuine, not a nineteenth century fake assembled to order for the market by those who
well knew their Pliny (Kragelund and Moltesen 2003).
The overwhelming assumption, apparently supported by Polybius and Pliny, is that Roman
portraiture was all about status, that is to say about its external function, or advertising the image of
the portrayed to the outside world. That is certainly borne out by the portraits on the tombs of
Pompeii, not to speak of those on the via Appia and other streets of Rome, including the serried
ranks of freemen solemnly framed in the windows from which they look out on the world (Kleiner
1977). But portraits, like houses and tombs, have an internal as well as an external function. They
are a mechanism whereby a family represents itself to itself and constructs its identity. That is also
what Polybius and Pliny are saying. A tomb like that of Valerius Herma shows this function at
work.
Conclusion
In sum, my argument is that the analogy between tomb and house in Roman Italy is perhaps
stronger than we suspected. I remain sceptical about the importance of the formal architectural
evocations. These are present, but always partial. It seems to me incredibly risky to reconstruct the
image of the Etruscan house on the basis of the Etruscan tomb, however plausible the links. But it is
a game of allusion where one needs to know both sides of the equation to see how it works. On the
other hand, I have argued that the tomb is a conscious extension of the two-fold function of the
house, internally to articulate the household, externally to present the household to the world.
But the most interesting conclusion, I feel, is one about which we must be tentative without a more
extensive examination of the evidence. It is that over time, there are significant shifts in the balance
between this internal and external function. In the mid Republic and the high Empire, I have argued,
the internal function is dominant. Tombs are about representing the family or household to itself.
The main difference is that the mid-Republican family, like the Etruscan, is one with significant
duration over time, across several generations, while that of the Empire is short-lived, and recruits
the servile household to bolster its numbers. The high imperial model is by no means a return to the
mid-republican one, but a new one suitable to the changed society of the empire. Hence I have
deliberately characterised the late Republic/early Empire as a transitional period, to counter the
impression it always creates as the classic and timeless expression of the true Roman way. The
novelty lies in the vigorous and competitive interest in self-representation to the world outside;