What is it about?
Lavish funerary buildings (mausolea) were important features in Roman cemeteries built by wealthy citizens for themselves or by the civic/ecclesiastical community to honouring the past members of the society. By these expensive tombs wealth, social status and importance were all represented. The paper discusses this type of splendid tombs from Pannonia, which is western Hungary today from the 4th and early fifth century AD.
Featured Image
Photo by Dan Crile on Unsplash
Why is it important?
While under different names, like martyria, funerary chapels and so on these buildings were discussed, no clear definition was applied to what was a mausoleum in the Roman world and what not. Since this was not done, hardly any useful typology exist, which contains the main body of evidence. I have collected every evidence from the 4th - 5th century Pannonia, and discussed many of them in the paper.
Perspectives
Undertaking this research brougth me closer to our Roman ancestors, who wanted to be represented in a special way for the future generations. With the help of this work a better understanding can be achieved of the life, thoughts and social relationships of those, whose memory intended to last forever, but only a few suceeded in this.
Zsolt R Magyar
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Late Roman Mausolea in Pannonia, September 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004687981_009.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
