Map of the Esquiline Necropolis

Puticuli were ancient Roman mass graves located outside of cities where the dead bodies of the poor and rubbish were buried.[1][2][3] Usually they were left uncovered. It was considered shameful to be buried inside of these graves.[4] One puticuli was located in the Esquiline cemetery.[5] It was divided into two sections, one for artisans, and the other for the poor, prisoners, and other groups. This section was one thousand feet long and three hundred feet deep. It contained one hundred vaults which were thirty feet deep and twelve feet square.[6] They were filled with large quantities of various kinds of bodies. Some were of men or women and children. Others were of animals.[7][8]

During the 19th century the construction of a new residential block in the Esquiline area uncovered a series of 75 rectangular mass graves which were lined with capellaccio tufa or spereone and arranged in rows. These graves were associated with the 1,000 by 300 foot potter's field filled with bones described by Horace.[9] According to Horace, before the Battle of Actium, Gaius Maecenas built gardens over tis puticuli.[5] However, the connection between the two area is disputed by academics.[9]

According to Varro,[10] the name puticuli means "little pits" and derives from the Latin word putei, meaning "pits." Varro claims that his mentor, Lucius Aelius Stilo, stated the name dervies from the verb putescebant,[11] meaning "was rotting." Varo states that Aelius believed the bodies were thrown into the puticuli to rot.[12] Varro also cites another writer called Afranius. Varro claims that Afranius believed that it derives from the word putei. In a play he calls them "pit-lights" and claims the corpses look at light from the pit, or putei.[13][14]

References

  1. ↑ Morris, Ian; Ian, Morris (1992). Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0521376112.
  2. ↑ Hope, Valerie M. (1997-01-01). "Constructing Roman identity: Funerary monuments and social structure in the Roman world". Mortality. 2 (2): 107–108. doi:10.1080/713685858. ISSN 1357-6275.
  3. ↑ Lindsay, Hugh. “The Tomb of the Arruntii Sponsoring Burial Arrangements for Slaves and Freedmen the 18th-Century Drawings and the Inscriptions .” Mediterranean Archaeology, vol. 24, 2011, pp. 104. JSTOR, Accessed 9 Aug. 2022.
  4. ↑ Hope, Valerie M.; Marshall, Eireann (2002). Death and Disease in the Ancient City. Routledge. pp. 111, 117, 131. ISBN 978-1134611560.
  5. 1 2 Nock, Arthur Darby (1932). "Cremation and Burial in the Roman Empire". Harvard Theological Review. 25 (4): 322. doi:10.1017/S0017816000021313. ISSN 1475-4517 – via Cambridge Core.
  6. ↑ Rallo, G. E. (2021). "What Does the Term Togata 'Really' Mean?". The Classical Quarterly. 71 (1): 216–229. doi:10.1017/S0009838821000355. hdl:10023/23470. ISSN 0009-8388. S2CID 235679564.
  7. ↑ Emmerson, Allison L. C. (2020). Life and Death in the Roman Suburb. Oxford University Press. pp. 92–98. ISBN 978-0192594099.
  8. ↑ Kyle, Donald G. (2012). Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome. Routledge. ISBN 978-1134862719.
  9. 1 2 Hope, Valerie M.; Marshall, Eireann (2000). Death and Disease in the Ancient City. Psychology Press. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-415-21427-8.
  10. ↑ Morris, Ian (2015-12-22), "dead, disposal of", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-2038#acrefore-9780199381135-e-2038, ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5, retrieved 2024-01-16
  11. ↑ Porter, James I. (1999). Constructions of the Classical Body. University of Michigan Press. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-472-08779-2.
  12. ↑ Hardie, Philip (2016-01-07). Augustan Poetry and the Irrational. Oxford University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-19-103771-9.
  13. ↑ Rallo, G. E. (2021). "WHAT DOES THE TERM TOGATA 'REALLY' MEAN?". The Classical Quarterly. 71 (1): 229. doi:10.1017/S0009838821000355. ISSN 0009-8388.
  14. ↑ Varro, Marcus Terentius; Kent, Roland G. (Roland Grubb) (1938). On the Latin language. Pratt - University of Toronto. London : W. Heinemann. p. 25.
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