Inscriptions on Monuments

Go Back to Step 8: Other Tomb Artwork Return to the Project Overview Move on to Step 9: Inscription Plaques

The most important part of the funerary monument is the inscription that will commemorate the people buried in the monument. The inscription will document the lives of your Ostian and so you will want to be able to include as much of your municipal life as possible.

The number of inscriptions that will be part of your monument is dependent on the type of monument:

Burial Society Since the monument is not your own, you do not need to purchase an inscription for the outside of the monument. You just need to write the text of the small columbarium epitaphs that will appear beneath the niche. You will need to write an epitaph for each person buried there. Columbarium epitaphs can have a maximum of 100 letters. You do not need to pay for the marble columbarium tablet, but you will need to pay to inscribe your inscription onto the tablet.
Cippus The inscription for a cippus monument is on the cippus (the tombstone) itself. The space on the stone is quite small. Columbarium epitaphs can have a maximum of 150 letters. You do not need to purchase an inscription tablet, but you must still pay to inscribe your inscription on the cippus.
Funerary Altar The inscription for a funerary altar is on the stone itself. The space on the stone is quite small. Columbarium epitaphs can have a maximum of 250 letters. You do not need to purchase an inscription tablet, but you must still pay to inscribe your inscription on the altar.
Columbarium Monument The columbarium is a large monument. There is a plaque over the door that records the person or persons who paid for the monument. There are also columbarium inscriptions under each urn in each niche inside the columbarium. You will need to purchase an inscription plaque (see below). You will then need to write the columbarium epitaph that will appear under each urn in each niche. If you are burying a couple, there will need to be short (100 letters or less) epitaphs for both the husbands and the wife). You do not need to purchase plaques for these columbarium epitaphs.
Miniature Columbarium The inscription for a miniature columbarium is on the monument itself. The space on the stone is quite small. There is room on the monument for a maximum of 150 letters. You do not need to pay for a plaque as the inscription is part of the monument that you purchased.
Monument over a Chamber or a Large Monument Like the columbarium, there will need to be an inscription on the outside of the monument. For this, you can either write the inscription directly onto the monument (as long as you place the inscription on marble or travertine). If you put the inscription directly on the monument, then you can have up to 1000 letters on the monument buying a plaque. You cannot put an inscription onto brick however. If you want to put the inscription on its own marble plaque (especially if you want the inscription to be on a brick part of the monument) then you will need to purchase a plaque (see below). You will also need to include columbarium epitaphs for the niches inside the columbarium portion of the monument. You do not need to purchase plaques for these inscriptions as long as they are not longer than 100 letters.
Plaque Prices These are the prices for inscription plaques to add to columbaria and the other monuments. Plaques come in four sizes and prices: Small plaque (1-100 letters): 6,000 sestertii Medium plaque (101-300 letters): 14,000 sestertii Large plaque (301-500 letters): 20,000 sestertii Very large plaque (501-1000 letters): 30,000 sestertii