Mainz, Tombstones

Tombstones

The next photos are from monuments and inscriptions from the Landesmuseum. The first one is interesting, because the man who was buried there and his brother were not native Romans, but Parthians, born in Cilicia. Click on the pictures for more information.

Mainz, Tombstone of Antiochus, the Parthian Archer

Mainz, Tombstone of Maris, the Arabian horseman

Mainz, Relief of a Roman couple

Mainz, Tombstone with a poem for a girl

The second tombstone is of a mounted archer named Maris, son of Casitus. Like the Antiochus of the first tombstone, Maris was a member of the Squadron of Parthians and Arabs, in which his brothers Masicates and Tigranus appear to have fought as well.

The third tombstone is of a couple whose names are lost. The woman, standing, wears a native dress and jewelry; the man also has a typical native dress with a hoof, a cucullus. It can be dated to the second century. It is interesting to see that in the first century, civil monuments are almost absent from the archaeological evidence; in the second century, when the military base became less important and the city was prospering, they become much more numerous.

Finally, the tombstone of a girl. In Mainz, as everywhere in the ancient world, about two third of the people were dead before they had reached the age of ten.