A Mask in the Forum: Julia’s Funeral, 69 BC

Julia’s funeral, 69 BC: the forbidden face of Marius appears in the procession, and a young quaestor begins to speak.

Transcript

Rome, sixty-nine BC. A funeral procession moves through the Forum.

By Roman custom, wax masks of the ancestors follow the dead woman. This is how Romans bid farewell to their own.

Among the masks, Plutarch writes, the likeness of Marius appears.

Someone shouts. Someone applauds. A young quaestor, the dead woman’s nephew, mounts the Rostra and speaks.