Grave Relief of Agrippina

In antiquity, as today, death could come quickly and unexpectedly. Grave monuments often had to be purchased from whatever was in a merchant's stock, rather than made to order. Many Roman grave monuments show signs of hasty changes intended to make the portrait more appropriate. This grave relief, however, displays an instance where the portrait bears no resemblance to the deceased.

This relief depicts a bust set within an aedicula or small funerary shrine. The Greek inscription carved across the lower part of the monument reads, "To the gods of the underworld! For Agrippina, our daughter, who lived three years, one month, and twenty-seven days, we the parents had this relief made in her memory." Yet, the bust carved on the monument depicts a boy about ten to twelve years old. It appears that, for the grieving parents, having any monument took precedence over including an actual likeness of their daughter. This relief is also unusual in its form. Grave reliefs are rare in Rome by this time; sarcophagi were the more common monument for the dead.