The soldier and death. Funerary practices of soldiers under the Principate

[Extract] The Romans of the imperial period practised several religions.1 In one they honoured the traditional gods such as Jupiter, Juno, Minerva and Mars; in another they celebrated the emperor; still another addressed the divinities of the provinces, or the so-called Oriental gods; and finally they honoured the dead. This last type of cultic activity is often neglected in modern scholarship. Yet this religion had its own organization, with its own deities, myths, and rites. In the Roman Empire, almost the same treatment was reserved for all of the deceased, whether they were military or civilian, but specific differences are nevertheless noticeable. Firstly, unlike in the modern era, the Romans rarely erected monuments as war memorials, which became so widespread in modern Europe – especially after 1918. Some archaeologists have detected a memorializing construction of this type at Adamklissi in Dobruja, in present-day Romania.2 On this site, Domitian had first erected a monument called ‘The Triumph of ad 89’ to commemorate the dead, which was destroyed in the time of Trajan, and which could indeed be compared to a ‘monument to the dead’. An altar also exists at this site, listing the names of thousands of soldiers who lost their lives in battle in this region. In ad 109, Trajan added an enormous trophy (tropaeon), better known as ‘the mausoleum of Adamklissi’, and scholars have wanted to interpret this building as a tribute to the dead soldiers of this conflict. This was, however, actually a monument to a god; the emperor had dedicated it to Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger) for the Romans killed in the wars in Dacia.

Christopher Matthew is the translator and editor of this chapter.