Death in Motion: Funeral Processions in the Roman Forum

Speaker: Dr. Diane Favro

A plethora of religious and state events clogged the ancient Roman calendar, many marked by animated parades that wound through Imperial Rome. Interspersed among these were melancholy processions bearing the deceased from home to a final resting place outside the city walls. For members of the elite, the route and activities of the Roman funeral offered a valuable opportunity to display and enhance their symbolic capital. Previous studies have considered ancient funerals over broad swaths of time, individual commemorative activities such as the burning of the pyre outside the city limits, or specific features such as the carrying of death masks. Few have contextualized the funerary procession (pompa funebris) either in a specific space or in relation to the intricately constructed Roman experience of a funeral. Rome’s most illustrious and ambitious citizens choreographed their funerals with memorable activities in the Forum Romanum. The reassessment of textual descriptions in conjunction with the physical environments as recreated in digital simulation models reveals the potent interplay between Roman funerary practices and a specific urban space.

Dr. Favro is a professor of Architecture and Urban Design and Director of the Experiential Technology Center at UCLA. She also served as President of the Society of Architectural Historians from 2002-2004. She is the author of The Urban Image of Augustan Rome (Cambridge University Press 1996) as well as many articles on digital Rome. Her article "The IconiCITY of ancient Rome" in the journal Urban History was recently honored as the most viewed article of 2007.

Sponsored by ASU's
School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
School of Human Evolution and Social Change
School of Art
Herberger Center for Design Research
Department of History
Department of Religious Studies

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Comment by Kathryn Michel on November 18, 2008 at 4:33pm

The Phoenicia is probably a better choice in case students wish to join us. But I do hope we go to Tricks sometime in the future as it sounds nice.

Comment by Jayni Reinhard on November 18, 2008 at 4:20pm

Update - dinner will now be back at the Phoenicia Cafe, on Forest Ave and 7th just north of campus. We definitely welcome anyone who wishes to join us! The Phoenicia Cafe is a delightful and laid-back spot where we can all mingle more comfortably. A nice touch, they also do individual checks as a rule, so there's no squabbling about bills and everyone is responsible for themselves! We hope to see you there.

Comment by Jayni Reinhard on November 14, 2008 at 3:14pm

Dinner will be held at Tricks on 7th Ave. in Tempe. We will all head over there after Dr. Favro's lecture. The restaurant is rather inconspicuous, but is located on the north side of 7th between Mill Ave. and College Ave. It looks very much like a nice ranch-style house with a garden out front and some nice large trees to keep it somewhat secluded from street noise.
We welcome anyone who would like to join us!

Comment by Kathryn Michel on November 14, 2008 at 11:26am

Where will we be having dinner after the lecture?

Comment by Jayni Reinhard on November 6, 2008 at 5:30pm

Great question!!
Here is a link to the ASU Tempe campus map and parking facilities. Murdock is further south than Life Sciences A, closer to the Memorial Union. It looks like there is relatively close visitor parking near the intramural athletic fields. On the map, Murdock is located at 5D. There is also parking at the large Apache Blvd. lot, which is closer to the new building than the Fulton Center lot on the north side of campus.
Also, please note that our event is upstairs, in 201 - the other lecture hall downstairs is hosting a large event as well.

http://www.asu.edu/parking/pdf/asu_pts_tempe2008_web.pdf

Comment by Kathryn Michel on November 6, 2008 at 3:59pm

Where is Murdock Hall in relation to where we usually have the lectures?