Columbarium Tombs and Collective Identity in Augustan Rome

This book analyzes the architecture of columbarium tombs and explains their unique design with the particular social experience of their non-elite occupants.

Dorian Borbonus (Author)

9781108436021, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 May 2019

310 pages, 71 b/w illus. 11 tables
18 x 25 x 1.5 cm, 0.6 kg

'In this slim book on death, Borbonus brings the world of the columbarium tombs to life. Columbarium Tombs and Collective Identity in Augustan Rome has a great sense of place - Rome and Italy breathe through its narrative - and, with this, a very enlightening summation of the less read Italian contributions to the history of non-elite burial tombs.' H. Sigismund Nielsen, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Columbarium tombs are among the most recognizable forms of Roman architecture and also among the most enigmatic. The subterranean collective burial chambers have repeatedly sparked the imagination of modern commentators, but their origins and function remain obscure. Columbarium Tombs and Collective Identity in Augustan Rome situates columbaria within the development of Roman funerary architecture and the historical context of the early Imperial period. Contrary to earlier scholarship that often interprets columbaria primarily as economic burial solutions, Dorian Borbonus shows that they defined a community of people who were buried and commemorated collectively. Many of the tomb occupants were slaves and freed slaves, for whom collective burial was one strategy of community building that counterbalanced their exclusion in Roman society. Columbarium tombs were thus sites of social interaction that provided their occupants with a group identity that, this book shows, was especially relevant during the social and cultural transformation of the Augustan era.

1. Studying columbaria as a historical phenomenon
2. Tradition and innovation in the architectural design of columbaria
3. Making and breaking the rules: the use and evolution of columbaria
4. Reading between the lines: the vocabulary of columbarium epitaphs
5. Finding niches in society: the occupants.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]