Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker

The tomb of Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces the baker is one of the largest and best-preserved freedman funerary monuments in Rome. Its sculpted frieze is a classic example of the "plebeian style" in Roman sculpture. Eurysaces built the tomb for himself and perhaps also his wife Atistia around the end of the Republic (ca. 50-20 BC). Located in a prominent position just outside today's Porta Maggiore, the tomb was transformed by its incorporation in the Aurelian Wall; a tower subsequently erected by Honorius covered the tomb, the remains of which were exposed upon its removal by Gregory XVI in 1838. What is particularly significant about this extravagant tomb is that it was built by a freedman, a former slave.

Three sides of the slightly trapezoidal structure remain largely intact. All have the same form, with over a plain lower storey, now mostly below ground level but exposed, a storey consisting of pairs of engaged columns between flat slabs, all crammed together with no space in between. The effect is far from the classical orders; at the corners the slabs turn to pilasters rising at the top level to unorthodox capitals combining scrolls at the sides with plant forms in the centre. There are unusual circular openings in the topmost storey, now thought to represent kneading-basins or grain-measuring vessels. Below a cornice is the frieze, with continuous scenes in relief showing the operation of the bakery where Eurystaces made what was evidently a considerable fortune. Reconstructions imagine a gently rising roof above this, now lost.

Although there is no conclusive statement on the monument that Eurysaces was a freedman - there is no "L" for libertus in the inscription - there are a number of reasons for believing that this was the case. His name takes the form of a Roman praenomen and nomen followed by a Greek cognomen, nomenclature typical for a freedman, combining as it does the identity of the former owning family with that of the individual when a slave. The inscription also lacks the filiation usual for the freeborn. The banausic and labour-intensive activities commemorated, those of baking, are not usually celebrated by the freeborn upper classes. The unusual form of the monument and of its inscription have also been used to locate Eurysaces as a nouveau riche parvenu in the manner of Trimalchio, with his "naive ostentation" vulgarly imitative of elite culture.

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