Death in Motion: Funeral Processions in the Roman Forum
By Diane Favro and Christopher Johanson
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 69, no. 1 (2010)
Introduction: The calendars of republican and imperial Rome were overflowing with a plethora of religious and state events, many of which were marked by animated parades that wound through the city. Interspersed among these were melancholy processions that carried the deceased from home to a final resting place outside the walls of the capital. For members of the elite, the route and activities of the Roman funeral offered a valuable opportunity to display and increase their symbolic importance. Previous studies have considered the long history of funerals in antiquity, commemorative activities such as the burning of the pyre outside the city limits, or specific features such as the carrying of death masks. Few have contextualized the funerary procession (pompa funebris) with specific spaces or in relation to the intricately constructed Roman experience of a funeral. Rome
