🏺🏛️The Cult of the Dead and Funeral Rites in Pompeii 🪦

🏺🏛️The Cult of the Dead and Funeral Rites in Pompeii 🪦

Pompeii offers a unique window into life and death in ancient Rome. Its necropolises, located outside the walls along major thoroughfares, preserve a variety of funerary monuments that reflect beliefs and practices related to the cult of the dead.

✅ Pompeii's Necropolises: a priceless archaeological heritage

Pompeii's necropolises extend along the main arteries that connected the city to other neighboring centers: the Via dei Sepolcri (Herculaneum Gate - coastal settlements, Neapolis and Cumae), the Via Nucerina (Pompeii - Nuceria and, via the Via Popilia, to other southern centers), the Via Stabiana (Pompeii - Stabia) and the road that, starting west of Porta Vesuvio, led to the Pagus Augusti Felix Suburbanus.

These funerary areas, rich in monuments of different periods and architectural types, offer a vivid picture of Roman funerary customs, from the simplest to the most lavish. Schola tombs, aedicule tombs, enclosed tombs, and memorial plaques testify to the importance attached to the memory of the deceased and to the maintenance of their social status even after death.

✅ Funeral Rites: from conclamatio to burial

Funeral ritual in Pompeii followed a precise ceremonial. After death, the deceased was washed, perfumed, and dressed in the garb most appropriate to their social status. His name was pronounced for the last time (conclamatio) and a last kiss was given.

The funeral procession (pompa) was conducted in different ways depending on the social rank of the deceased. Public funerals (funus indictivum) of distinguished persons or benefactors were announced by the town crier and were distinguished by pomp and magnificence. Ancient norms aimed to curb exaggeration, but often funeral pomp became an occasion for ostentation and display of wealth.

At Pompeii, the prevailing funerary practice was cremation. The poor were cremated at the burial site itself (bustum), while elaborate pyres were set up for the wealthy in special places (ustrinum). Gifts and objects belonging to the deceased were burned along with the body. Ashes were collected in urns and laid in monumental tombs or simple burials.

 ✅ The Tomb: projection of the social image

The tomb, in addition to housing the remains of the deceased, assumed a strong symbolic value as a projection of the social image of the deceased and his family. The architecture, decorations, inscriptions, and grave goods helped perpetuate the memory of the deceased and convey information about his status, profession, and virtues to posterity.

✅ The Cult of the Dead: libations and memorial feasts

The cult of the dead did not end with burial. Graves were equipped with conduits that allowed libations of wine, oil, and honey to be poured directly onto the urn. These ritual offerings, along with prayers and invocations, served to nourish the deceased and keep their memory alive.

In addition, memorial festivals (Parentalia and Feralia) were celebrated in honor of the deceased, during which graves were visited, offerings were brought, and religious ceremonies were held.

 ✅  The importance of funerary inscriptions

Funeral inscriptions, engraved on the walls of monuments or on tombstones, played a key role in perpetuating the memory of the deceased. In addition to the name, they often recorded the career (cursus honorum), offices held and charitable works performed in life. Through the inscriptions, the deceased continued to “speak” to the living, passing on their name and deeds to future generations.

✅The Scholae of Pompeii: a unicum in the Roman world

Among Pompeii's funerary monuments, a prominent place belongs to the scholae tombs, a type of burial characteristic of the Vesuvian city and not attested in other areas of the Roman world. These are monuments intended for prominent members of the city's elite (magistrates, priests, priestesses) and erected at public expense by decurion decree.

The schola consists of a semicircular tufa seat with lion's paw terminations, behind which stands a small enclosure, perhaps a garden sacrae tutelae. The funerary inscription is often engraved on the back of the seat. To date, eight schola tombs have been found in the Pompeian necropolis, distributed among Porta Stabia, Porta Ercolano, Porta Nola and Porta Vesuvio. Their chronology lies in the Julio-Claudian period, from the height of the Augustan age to the middle of the first century AD.

✅  Numerius Agrestinus Equitius Pulcher: a prominent figure.

A significant example of a person buried in a schola tomb is Numerius Agrestinus Equitius Pulcher, a military tribune and prefect of the fabri. His tomb, discovered in 2024 during work on the new library at the Pompeii Archaeological Park, contains an inscription detailing his career and social status.

The same person is also attested in another funerary inscription in the Porta Nocera necropolis, confirming his importance in Pompeian society.

✅The Collegia Funeraticia: solidarity and welfare

To meet the expenses of the funeral and related rites, especially for the less affluent classes, collegia funeraticia, associations that guaranteed their members a dignified funeral and the celebration of rites in their honor, became widespread in Pompeii. These collegia, composed mainly of slaves and freedmen, were based on a system of monthly contributions that made it possible to meet funeral expenses without burdening families.

✅ Conclusions

The cult of the dead and funerary rites in Pompeii reflect a complex and articulated belief system in which the memory of the deceased, the maintenance of their social status and the care of their well-being in the afterlife played a major role.

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