Tombstones of Roman Britain : A Guide to Encountering the Dead

Discover the men, women, and children who called the Roman province of Britannia home through the most final ? and often only ? evidence they left behind: their tombstones. What can we learn from these lasting monuments to the dead? This book brings together a selection of surviving tombstones from Roman Britain for the first time in an easy-to-access collection, accompanied by useful contextual information on ancient burial practices, funerary symbolism, and afterlife beliefs. Explore the lives and deaths of people from every walk of life who came from all over the vast Roman Empire: from the devoted wives and playful children living along Hadrian's Wall, to the experienced soldiers stationed at forts across the province, and even the enslaved as they are commemorated for all eternity on these ancient inscribed stones. New clear translations of the inscriptions introduce these memorials to modern readers, and a handy guide at the end also equips readers with the tools for decoding common Latin funerary abbreviations for themselves. Each tombstone is accompanied by background information on the deceased, while accompanying illustrations and photographs of the tombstones bring these ancients back to life. AUTHOR: Dr Stephanie Holton is Staff Tutor and Lecturer in Classical Studies at the Open University. Her teaching and research explore ancient ideas about death, the body, and the soul across the Greek and Roman worlds. She was previously Senior Lecturer in Classics at Newcastle University, where she led several outreach projects based on ancient languages including the award-winning 'Romans on the Tyne' for schools in the North East. She is dedicated to making the ancient world accessible to modern audiences of all ages and frequently collaborates with museums, schools, and charities on a wide variety of projects. 30 b/w illustrations