The Dignity of Labour: Image, Work & Identity in the Roman World by Iain Ferris

562 in stock

233mm x 155mm x 33mm

Pages: 288

Numerous incidental illustrations of agricultural workers occur on Roman artworks, while the names and trades of many individual working people, artisans, and professionals are known from inscriptions and funerary monuments in Rome and from across the empire. The most extraordinary individual funerary monuments for working people are the Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker that still stands at Porta Maggiore in Rome and the Tomb of the Haterii in the Vatican Museums, the latter a monument to a family that had made their fortune in the construction industry. Less grand but equally informative are the dozens of other funerary monuments to people such as Bassilla the mime or actress from Aquileia, Longidienus the shipbuilder from Ravenna, and Vitalis the pork butcher from Rome. This study encompasses consideration of written and archaeological sources, but particularly visual evidence in the form of sculptures, funerary monuments of various kinds, mosaics, and wall paintings.