The Gardens of Sallust

Kim J. Hartswick - The Gardens of Sallust. A Changing Landscape (University of Texas Press, 2004) 18-19 

A garden estate was clearly not only a physical manifestation of the owner’s social and political standings, or philosophical leanings but a potential source of his immortality. The domus could publicly advertise the owner’s glory as effectively as or even more effectively than an inscribed name on the architrave of a temple. After one’s death, a grand estate could retain the name of its former owner, just as temples sometimes were referred to after their founders rather than for the divinity to which they were dedicated. 211 In the case of the gardens of Sallust, these seem never to have lost the name of the original owner. Even in the Middle Ages, the district was called “Sallustricum,” and in the sixteenth century, it was known in common parlance as “Salustrico.” 212 Perhaps accounting for the interest in his gardens during these times was the importance of Sallust’s historical writings in the medieval and Renaissance periods. 213

It is not surprising, therefore, that the Roman garden, reflecting one’s life and anticipating the preservation of one’s memory, could serve as the final resting place after death and that monumental tombs on villa properties were characteristic features already by the second century b.c. 214 Such burials, at least in the Republican period, however, did not have to be in suburban gardens. Tombs in the city on private property were an ancient custom reserved for patrician families until imperial times, when this right was reserved for only the emperor and the vestals. 215 Indeed, when Lucullus died in 56 b.c. not only was he honored with a public ceremony, but the people requested he have a tomb in the Campus Martius. His family, however, declined this offer, opting to bury their relative at Tusculum in a tomb perhaps already constructed. 216

Notas

211. Wiseman 1987, 395–396. See Sallust’s comment (Cat. 12.4): Delubra deorum pietate, domos suas gloria decorabant.

212. Fulvio 1527, fr. 24; Marliani 1544, IV, 23; Marliana 1544, V, 24; Mauro 1556, 83.

213. P. J. Osmond, “Princeps Historiae Romanae: Sallust in Renaissance Political Thought,” MAAR 40 (1995) 101–143.

214. M. Verzár-Bass, “A Proposito dei Mausolei negli Horti e nelle Villae” in Horti Romani, 401–424.

215. Serv., ad Aen. 5.64, 6.152, 11.206.

216. Plut., Luc. 43.3.