Roman soldiers' gravestones in Greater Syria: thoughts on designs, imports, and impact

Abstract

Roman soldiers had set ideas about their gravestones. For instance, it mattered very much where their funerary monuments stood. As a general rule, their gravestones were expected to address either the soldier’s native community at home or the community of his fellow soldiers from near and far. A remote battle field or a road through the countryside may have been a place to die (and get buried), but not one to set up a funerary monument. For the design of their epitaphs, soldiers also had a set of iconographic choices and standard form Show more