1 Slane, K. W., “Remaining Roman in death at an eastern colony,” JRA 25 (2012) 442–55Google Scholar.

2 Cf. Rife, J. L. et al., “Life and death at a port in Roman Greece. The Kenchreai Cemetery Project, 2002-2006,” Hesperia 76 (2007) 143–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar; id., Isthmia IX. The Roman and Byzantine graves and human remains (Princeton, NJ 2012), with review at JRA 26 (2013) 827-38; Walbank, M. E. H., “Unquiet graves: burial practices of the Roman Corinthians,” in Schowalter, D. N. and Friesen, S. J. (edd.), Urban religion in Roman Corinth (HarvThSt 53, 2005) 249–80Google Scholar.

3 The latest, and rather different, contribution to the debate is Spawforth's, A. J. S. (Greece and the Augustan revolution [Cambridge 2012] especially 26–33)Google Scholar “Romanity”, shorthand for the cultural impact of Greek culture on the Roman and the subsequent dialogue between the two élites. This is interesting from the standpoint of Roman Corinth.

4 Cf. Mattingly, D. J., “Cultural crossovers: global and local identities in the classical world,” in Hales, S. and Hodos, T. (edd.), Material culture and social identities in the ancient world (Cambridge 2010) 283–95Google Scholar.

5 An elaborately-decorated chamber tomb, said to be of the Roman period, was uncovered in 2012 during expansion of the Corinth/Patras highway. It is notable for the painted portrait of a young woman lying on a funeral bed (AGOnline ID2910). Another lavishly-decorated chamber tomb, dated provisionally in the 1st-2nd c., was found in the same area and reported in the Greek press in November 2013 (study is likely to result in a revision of the dating). These and other very recent discoveries may alter the picture of burial at Roman Corinth.

6 James, S. A., “The last of the Corinthians? Society and settlement from 146 to 44 BC,” in Friesen, S. J., James, S. A. and Schowalter, D. N. (edd.), Corinth in contrast: studies in inequality (Leiden 2014) 17–37 Google Scholar.

7 Slane includes a circus in her list of public amenities. This was proposd by Romano, D. G. (“A Roman circus in Corinth,” Hesperia 74 [2005] 585–611)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, but subsequent remote sensing of the unexcavated half of the area produced no evidence of a circus and the cone is better identified as a baetyl of Apollo Agyieus than as belonging to one of the metae.

8 Robinson, B. A., Histories of Peirene (Princeton, NJ 2011) especially chapt. 2Google Scholar, with review in this issue.

9 Spawforth, A. J. S., “Roman Corinth: the formation of a colonial elite,” in Rizakis, A. D. (ed.), Roman onomastics in the Greek East: social and political aspects (Meletemata 21, Athens 1996) 167–82Google Scholar.

10 Rizakis, A. D., “La constitution des élites municipales dans les colonies romaines de la province d’Achaie,” in Salomies, O. (ed.), The Greek East in the Roman context (Helsinki 2001) 41–49 Google Scholar. Millis, B. W. (“The social and ethnic origins of the colonists in Early Roman Corinth,” in Friesen, S. J., Schowalter, D. N. and Walters, J. C. [edd.], Corinth in context: comparative studies on religion and society [Leiden 2010) 13–35)Google Scholar has now analysed further the background of the colonists, concluding that early Corinthian society was a hybrid of Greek and Roman cultures in which the inhabitants could navigate successfully between both worlds. In a related article (“The local magistrates and elite of Roman Corinth,” in Friesen, James and Schowalter [supra n.6] 38-53) he discusses the composition of the governing élite, which he sees dominated by wealthy freedmen almost exclusively of Greek origin, to a lesser extent by freeborn Roman citzens long established in the East, and thirdly by members of the Greek provincial élite.

11 See, e.g., the discussion of literary sources in Konig, J., “Favorinus' Corinthian Oration in its Corinthian Context,” ProcCambPhilSoc 47 (2001) 141–71Google Scholar.

12 The kline is on display in the Corinth museum. See Corinth III, ii, 62 and Appendix B on 297-301. For the 4th-c. date, see Landon, M. E., “Beyond Peirene: toward a broader view of Corinthian water supply,” in Williams, C. K and Bookidis, N. (edd.), Corinth: the centenary 1896–1996 (Princeton, NJ 2003) 51, n.36Google Scholar.

13 Excavated in 1927 and unpublished.

14 Pemberton, E. G., “Ten Hellenistic graves in ancient Corinth,” Hesperia 54 (1985) 271–307 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Kurtz, D. C. and Boardman, J., Greek burial customs (London 1971) 273–80Google Scholar.

16 Protonotariou-Deilaki, E., “Ἀρχαιότητε1ς καὶ μνημεῖα Ἀργολιδοκορινθίας,” ADelt 26 (1971 [1974]) 71–74 and pl. 62Google Scholar. The interior decoration differs from that in other Roman-period tombs, in particular the delicately-painted horizontal lines punctuated with the 8-ray star that H. Brecoulaki describes as the symbol par excellence of the Macedonians: Brecoulaki, H., La peinture funéraire de Macédoine: emplois et fonctions de couleur, IVe-IIe s. av. J.-C. (Meletemata 48, 2006) 287 Google Scholar. Slane disregards the pre-Roman elements and thinks that the combination of provision for cremation and inhumation burials shows that the tomb is Roman in date.

17 Slane 443-50. Robinson, H. S., “Excavations at Corinth,” ADelt 18 (1963) 76–80 Google Scholar; Daux, G., “Chronique des fouilles,” BCH 87 (1963) 722–28Google Scholar; Walbank (supra n.2) 261-69.

18 Funerary couches: Toynbee, J. M. C., Death and burial in the Roman world (London 1971) 268–69 and pls. 9-11Google Scholar.

19 There is little evidence for tombs like those at Pompeii and Ostia which have an enclosure attached to the built tomb for additional burials and elaborate provision for outdoor meals. A tomb found in 1961 had a courtyard with a well that may have been used for funerary rituals (Walbank [supra n.2] 271).

20 The Greeks and Romans were flexible in their portrayal of pygmies and/or dwarfs: they could be interchangeable. For this reason, Versluys, M. J. (Aegyptiaca romana: Nilotic scenes and the Roman view of Egypt [Leiden 2002] 270)CrossRefGoogle Scholar uses “dwarf” and”pygmy” interchangeably.

21 Versluys ibid. passim but especially 41, Corinth paintings 219-20; Clarke, J., Looking at laughter (Berkeley CA, 2007) 106–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 J. R. Clarke has published discussions of Nilotic/‘exotic wonderland’ paintings, and of the decorative and apotropaic rôles of the pygmy in domestic and tomb contexts: Art in the life of ordinary Romans (Berkeley CA, 2003) 193–96Google Scholar (Pompeii) and 207-15 (Ostia); id. 2007 (supra n.20) 63-107. See also Meyboom, P. G. P. and Versluys, M. J., “The meaning of dwarfs in Nilotic scenes,” in Bricault, L., Versluys, M. J. and Meyboom, P. G. P. (edd.), Nile into Tiber: Egypt in the Roman world (Leiden 2007) 170–280 Google Scholar.

23 Dunbabin, K. M. D. (Mosaics of the Greek and Roman world [Cambridge 2001] 210–11)Google Scholar comments similarly with regard to mosaics in Greece and many western provinces. She singles out the black-and-white mosaic in the hall of a bath at Isthmia: “it appears that Italian fashions have been exported wholesale to Greece”.

24 Specifically in Greece, a floor mosaic in a house at Patras has a personification of the Nile on a crocodile in the centre and pygmies in boats alternating with lotus flowers in the border: ADelt 35 B´1 (1980) 182, pl. 79; Versluys (supra n.19) 221-22.

25 Shear, T. L., “The excavation of Roman chamber tombs at Corinth in 1931,” AJA 35 (1931) 424–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Rock-cut; a tiny vestibule opens into an open-plan chamber divided into outer and interior areas with 5 rock-cut arcosolia.

26 Skarmoutsou-Dimitroupoulou, K., ADelt 45, B´2 (1990 [1995]) 152–55, and pl. 72 b-eGoogle Scholar; ead., ADelt 47 (1992 [1997]) 167 Google Scholar; BCH 120 (1996) 1143 with figs. 37-40Google Scholar. The interior walls had been plastered and painted with grapevines; part of a painted inscription had been preserved — [I]NΘIΩN — perhaps KORINΘIΩN? (SEG 46 no. 239), but it does not help to date the structure.

27 Rife et al. (supra n.2) 153-58.

28 Wardle, K. A. and Wardle, D., “Glimpses of private life: Roman rock-cut tombs of the first and second centuries AD at Knossos,” in Cadogan, G., Hatzaki, E. and Vasilakis, A. (edd.), Knossos: palace, city and state (British School at Athens Studies 12, 2004) 473 Google Scholar.

29 Cormack, S., The space of death in Roman Asia Minor (Vienna 2004) 57–58 Google Scholar.

30 Spanu, M., “Burial in Asia Minor during the Imperial period with particular reference to Cilicia and Cappadocia,” in Pearce, J., Millett, M. and Struck, M. (edd.), Burial, society and context in the Roman world (Oxford 2002) 171–72Google Scholar.

31 Healey, J. F., The religion of the Nabateans: a conspectus (Leiden 2001) especially 50-52 and 165–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 I owe this information to an anonymous referee.

33 Venit, S. M., Monumental tombs of ancient Alexandria (Cambridge 2002) 19 Google Scholar, triclinium tombs 124-34, diffusion of Alexandrian tomb type 172-80; ead., “The tomb from Tigrane Pasha street and the iconography of death in Roman Alexandria,” AJA 101 (1997) 701–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Slane says that in the 1962 tomb the sarcophagus was placed opposite the entrance, but the plan (her fig. 7) shows it against a side wall.

35 The tomb, no longer visible, was excavated by Morgan, C. H. (“Excavations at Corinth 1935-1936,” AJA 40 [1936] 484)Google Scholar, who also excavated the Hexamilia tomb. The chamber (4.50 × 3.75 m) had a concrete vault. Eleven cremation niches were built into the rear and side walls, three of which still held a coarse red amphora that had been sunk into the floor of the niche at the time of construction and contained ash-like, burnt earth.

36 The practice of cremation seems to have died out at Corinth by the early 2nd c. A.D., whereas at Isola Sacra in the 160s and 170s both forms of burial were still being practised, often in the same tomb ( Taglietti, F., “Ancora su incinerazione e inumazione: la necropoli dell'Isola Sacra,” in Heinzelmann, M. et al. [edd.], Römischer Bestattungsbrauch und Beigabensitten in Rom, Norditalien und den Nordwestprovinzen von der spaten Republik bis in der Kaiserzeit [Palilia 8, 2001] 140–58)Google Scholar. Although the early colonists may have brought with them the practice of cremation, the incolae living in and around the city of Corinth are likely to have continued the local preference for burial, as might the people of Greek origin who were becoming increasingly prominent at Corinth by the end of the 1st c. A.D.

37 One urn contained the remains of a woman, the other an adult (sex unknown) and a child; there was a second skull at the foot of the skeleton: Walbank (supra n.2) 252-53.

38 For this tomb, see the reference in n.16 above.

39 Most of the niches had been broken open and the contents scattered.

40 Nock’s, A. D. summary (“Cremation and burial in the Roman Empire,” HThR 25 [1932] 321–59)Google Scholar is a still-useful survey of the widespread variations in the Mediterranean. He also provides epigraphic evidence for the difference in rank indicated by burial form in the East (n.58): an inscription at Termessos in Pisidia put up by a man providing a σωματοθήκη for himself, his wife and his children, and an ὀστοθήκη for his slave and his descendants: Lanckoronski, C., Niemann, G. and Petersen, E., Les villes de la Pamphylie et de la Pisidie (Paris 1890–1893) vol. II, 236, no. 186Google Scholar. In the Vatican necropolis (Tomb F) M. Tullius Hermadion provided a marble ash chest and inscription for his own cremation and inhumed the son who had predeceased him in a terracotta sarcophagus: Toynbee, J. M. C. and Perkins, J. B. Ward, The Shrine of St. Peter and the Vatican excavations (London 1956) 46 Google Scholar.

41 A small number of tombs had cists in the floor or arcosolia below the niches.

42 Rife et al. (supra n.2) 161. Slane (n.22) disagrees, saying of these hypogea at Kenchreai, “there is no suggestion of preferential position or treatment as appears in the [i.e., her] Corinthian tombs”.

43 Inscriptions have been found within or in the vicinity of a tomb, but during the period discussed only one titular inscription can be firmly attached to a particular chamber tomb.

44 E.g., Corinth VIII, 3, nos. 280, 284-85, 287 and 302Google Scholar; Pallas, D. I. and Ntantis, S. P., “Ἐπιγραφὲςἀπὸ τὴν Κόρινθο,” AE 1977 (1979) 24 Google Scholar (top complete, lower part missing); ILGR 125; Rife et al. (supra n.2) 157, fig. 9. Some plaques have grooves or cuttings indicating that they had been fastened to a wall. It is also possible in some instances that an epitaph, which also confirms ownership, refers to the acquisition of a specific area or burial spaces within the tomb, and not to the chamber tomb as a whole.

45 I leave aside verse epitaphs. Freedmen: Corinth VIII, 2, nos. 140, 142 and 151; IGLR 125.

46 A rare exception is the inscription (ILGR 125) erected at Kenchreai by M. Iulius Crispus, citizen of Corinth and veteran of legio II Adiutrix. He may have been influenced by long service in the army.

47 E.g., Calza, G., La necropoli del porto di Roma nell'Isola Sacra (Rome 1940) 285–376 Google Scholar. Funerary inscriptions in the Vatican necropolis are conveniently listed in Toynbee and Ward-Perkins (supra n.37) 118-19.

48 Slane (443, n.6) argues against this view on the grounds that some of the epitaphs in Corinth VIII, 3 Google Scholar are incomplete (Corinthian epitaphs are also published elsewhere and in sufficient numbers to support my conclusion) or that they were erected by a “living testator”. D(is) M(anibus) can refer to the deceased or be a general invocation to the familial spirits of the dead — ambiguously in that the Manes are the spirits of the dead but also spirits controlling death. By no means all Roman epitaphs have the invocation, but in Italy many during the 1st-2nd c. do. DM is not normally used in the Peloponnese but there is one (perhaps two) instances at Patrae, another Roman colony: Rizakis, A. D., Achaie II. La cité de Patras (Meletemata 25, 1998) 225–26Google Scholar.

49 Corinth VIII, 3, no. 294 Google Scholar; SEG XXVII 35.16 Google Scholar; LGPN III.A, s.v. Μαρκιανός. Kent dated it mid-2nd c., which is more likely than the earlier date proposed by M. Mitsos. See also Corinth VIII, 3, no. 303 Google Scholar (fragmentary), the epitaph of Publius Eg[natius?] Apoll[onius], an Ephesian, and his family. His origin probably accounts for the fact that it is in Greek. It is likely to be 2nd c.

50 “Italian elements among Roman knights and senators from Old Greece,” in Muller, C. and Hasenhor, C. (edd.), Les Italiens dans le monde grec, IIe av. J.-C. – 1er siècle ap. J.-C. (BCH Suppl. 41, 2002) 101–7Google Scholar.