Living without the Dead: Finding Solace in Ancient Rome

Authors

  • Valerie M. Hope Open University

Abstract

Devastated by the death of his daughter Tullia, Cicero struggled to assuage his grief. Cicero did all that was expected of an elite man—seeking comfort from friends and philosophy, from reading and writing, from remembering and commemorating—yet to the dismay of his friends he was still unmanly in his grief. This paper looks at the strategies used and available both to express and control grief in the Roman world. How did the bereaved negotiate a new role both for themselves and for the dead? How did they both display and conceal their grief? Grief was both a public performance and a private journey, and, as Cicero discovered, for the bereaved the tensions between public and private could be an emotional and practical minefield. Focusing on evidence from the late Republic and first century CE, the paper explores how individuals, after the public performance of the funeral, lived with their grief. It investigates ideals and counter ideals (including gender stereotypes) for the behaviour of the bereaved, and how bereavements were rationalised and consoled through various mechanisms such as support networks, rituals, beliefs (religious and philosophical), public monuments, personal mementos, art and literature. The dead could not be brought back to life, but for those left behind the dead were often a potent presence which could have a negative or positive impact on the future of the bereaved.

Author Biography

Valerie M. Hope, Open University

Valerie M. Hope is a senior lecturer in classical studies at the Open University (UK). She is the author of Constructing Identity: The Funerary Monuments of Aquileia, Mainz and Nîmes (Archaeopress, 2001); Death in Ancient Rome: A Sourcebook (Routledge, 2007); and Roman Death (Continuum, 2009); and articles on the commemoration of Roman soldiers and gladiators, as well as Roman mourning rituals. She also coedited Memory and Mourning: Studies on Roman Death (Oxbow, 2011).

Published

2017-03-31

Issue

Section

Section I: Memory, Mourning, and Returning to Life