page_title: Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker
section_title: Related finds
hierarchical_section_title: Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker / Related finds
caption_attribution_description: English: Funeral stele of Atistia. Latin inscription: “Fuit Atistia uxor mihei/ femina opituma ueixsit/ quoius corporis reliquiæ/ quod (sic) superant sunt in/ hoc panario” (“Atistia was my wife. She lived as an excellent woman, whose surviving remains are in this bread basket”). Found at the Porta Maggiore, 1838. Español: Placa funeraria romana encontrad cerca de Porta Maggiore en Roma en 1838,, correspondiente con CIL VI, 1958b = CIL I, 1206 (p 970) = AE 1993, 109 = AE 2004, 123: Fuit Atistia uxor mihei/ femina opituma veixsit/ quoius corporis reliquiae/ quod (sic) superant sunt in/ hoc panario Français&#160;: Stèle funéraire. Inscription latine&#160;: «&#160;Fuit Atistia uxor mihei, / femina opituma ueixsit, / quoius corporis reliquiæ / quod (!) superant sunt in / hoc panario&#160;» («&#160;Atistia était ma femme. Elle a vécu la vie d'une excellente femme, ce qui reste de son corps se trouve dans ce panier à pain.&#160;» Italiano: Iscrizione funeraria di Atistia, moglie di Eurisace, originariamente posta sul sepolcro di Porta Maggiore. Perciò le ceneri erano riposte in un panarium.
context_page_description: 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. Located in a prominent position just outside today's Porta Maggiore, the tomb was transformed by its incorporation into 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.
context_section_description: During demolition of the superimposed late antique fortifications by Pope Gregory XVI in 1838, a full-length relief portrait was discovered of a man and woman in toga and palla (taken to the Palazzo dei Conservatori); along with an inscription honouring one Atistia, a good wife whose remains were placed in a breadbasket; and an urn taking the form of such a breadbasket. Theft of the female head from the relief in 1934 and uncertainty as to the present whereabouts of the urn, believed to be somewhere in the Museo Nazionale Romano, mean their study is now conducted from excavation drawings and early photographs. Reconstructions generally relate these items to the tomb on the grounds of their style, subject matter, and findspot, with Atistia becoming Eurysaces' wife, and the double relief and inscription occupying the upper register of the now lost east facade of the tomb.
caption: The Atistia inscription
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