TOMBS

The tombs lining the streets leading away from the town provide a curious picture of Pompeian society. The streets beyond the Herculaneum and Nucerian Gates have been extensively explored, but much more still remains undiscovered beyond the other gates. The tombs show how people wished to be remembered after their deaths. Writing inside and outside tombs, pictures that have been painted or created in stucco or in sculpted relief, as well as the physical form of the overall tomb enclosure and individual monument, often projected a carefully calculated image of a single individual or of a family as a whole. At first glance, the same people dominated the landscape outside the town as inside: the grandest tombs commemorated the wealthy elite whose statues and buildings dominated the town (G4—12, G15). Nevertheless, sections of society who did not commonly appear in monumental inscriptions within the town’s walls — freedmen and freedwomen (G1, G27—35), children (G54—55), the lower classes (G56—58), even slaves (G42—46, G51) — had more prominence outside the town.

An overall survey of the town’s tombs will not, however, give us an accurate picture of the town’s population. Although they do appear, children and slaves are under-represented, while freedmen and freedwomen are overrepresented. We also know little about the town’s population before the colony was established: only a glimpse is provided by the discovery of a family burial ground beyond the Stabian Gate, which was apparently used continuously by the same family from pre-Roman times onwards (G1—3), and by Samnite burials outside the Herculaneum Gate. This confirms that it was Roman colonists who introduced monumental tomb architecture to the town, which was then gradually adopted by local families too. Also, most of the last generation of Pompeians is not represented, for obvious reasons: a few Flavian tombs exist, but most date from Augustan to Neronian times.

With these caveats in mind, we can still mine the tombs for information about society and funerary customs, tracing family relationships and social mobility (e. g. G27—32), political careers (F87—88, F98, G4—5, G7—8, G12) and occupations (H52, H60). Some non-Pompeians who had the misfortune to die away from home are also found (G66—69), while others died having

Migrated to live in Pompeii (G61—65). By studying the inscriptions in context, looking not just at the epitaph, but also at the actual burial and structure of the tomb, we can recreate some of the religious rites performed at the graveside (notes to G12—14, G66). Most of the tomb enclosures contained multiple burials, in the form of cremations. Ashes were placed in urns, which were either stored in niches inside a tomb, or buried underground beneath a herm, a form of funerary monument common only in this part of Campania: see Gl6a. This was a small upright stone carved into a generalized human head shape, with only the hairstyle at the back indicating a male or female figure. The herm itself would thus mark the actual point of burial, and would often be connected to the urn below by a pipe, which allowed for the pouring of libations onto the ashes. Not all herms were inscribed, but many display simple texts recording the deceased’s name and age. Despite their humble appearance, they might be used for magistrate and child, male and female, slave and free alike. Another local type of tomb was the so-called ‘exedra’ or ‘seat-tomb’ (E40, G4—9). These were large monuments, consisting of a masonry seat (usually semicircular) capable of accommodating at least eight weary passers-by. All tombs of this type at Pompeii are situated just outside a gate, and all were granted as a public honour to the deceased.