College Year in Lanuvium

Andrew Willey

Beta Psi of Rhodes College

The right to associate freely in corporations, clubs, and societies was restricted in Imperial Rome of the second and third centuries AD.  For the most part, such organizations were banned.  Perhaps the most famous example being Trajan's letter to Pliny advising him against the forming of a volunteer fire brigade.  One particular kind of organization was allowed to exist, however, with relatively little regulation, burial colleges.  Their purpose was, nominally, to provide a funeral plot and the proper funeral rites as long as a member paid his monthly dues. From the inscriptional evidence, these societies typically did much more than that.  Burial societies allowed people to meet and interact with others of similar station, as well as with the other classes of society, in banquets, meetings, elections, and festivals. The societies also appealed, specifically, to the wealthy by seeking donations or sponsorship, and erecting lasting monuments to their benefactors.  They served a vital role in Roman society by fostering community among members and by allowing them to be remembered after death.