Roman cemeteries and tombs

Demand for burial space in easy reach of Rome had increased ever since the foundation of the city, and it became more pressing with its rapid growth during the late Republic. Around the turn of the first and second century, a new type of impressive, free-standing tomb was introduced, the temple tomb and its variations. In its purest form, this tomb type, unique in Italy to Rome and its wider surroundings, resembled a full-fledged temple with podium, front stairs, colonnaded porch, and acroteria on the corners and apex of the roof. The later Roman cemeteries of Ostia, the port of Rome, closely related to the capital in various respects, indicate that new surface tombs, especially the more elaborate ones, became dominated by the social élite. It is often only the relative chronology of more long-lived and complex cemeteries and the style of decoration, especially of painting, that provide some broad indications of date.