 Thank you, Professor Gunsheimer, for that lovely introduction, and thank you all for being here. Thank you to the barns and for all the coordinators for your hard work. Amid the blazing sun, clouds of dust, sounds of cartwheels passing, and the unique fragrance of the ancient city, the weary traveler on the road to Pompeii would have been confronted with towering monuments of all shapes and sizes when approaching the main thoroughfare leading to the city gate. Lining this road, known as the Via d'Asepulchri, the tombs of Pompeii's most illustrious citizens vie for the notice of passers-by. Beginning miles from the Porta di Etcolano, one of the major city gates, grandiose monuments populate an important and busy route and are unmistakable even today. Attitudes toward an afterlife were inconsistent in the Roman Empire, and the multiplicity of religions and belief systems ensured only a tenuous agreement on the survival of the soul after death. Therefore, the only assured way to immortality was to be remembered by the living. One permanent and powerful solution to this dilemma was the construction of funerary monuments. In their function as the final markers of an individual's life and memory, the architectural forms, decoration, and even epitaphs of Roman funerary monuments helped to create the identity the patron wished to display. Following the pioneering phenomenological work of Penelope Davies and A. N. Favreau, by reconstructing the lived experience of one of these monuments, the tomb of the freedwoman Nevolia Taichi in Pompeii, this study aims to demonstrate how the active engagement of viewers was sought and utilized in the creation of posthumous memory. Nevolia Taichi was neither the richest nor most powerful of Pompeii and women, yet today she numbers among the most famous. Although once a slave, the memory of this freedwoman has endured over two millennia thanks to the survival of a grand mausoleum in Pompeii, which celebrates Taichi and her husband, the freedman Gaius Minatius Faustus. Penerary monument of Faustus and Taichi constructed circa 60 CE along the Via de Sepulchre. And here I just have a map to situate us. The structure is composed of a raised altar on a high podium, completely enclosed by a tall wall. Only access to the interior of the tomb is through a small door in the north side of the enclosure wall, here in yellow. Once through the doorway and narrow passage, the visitor is immediately presented with a second small doorway leading into the burial chamber, which is lined with our niches. A monumental altar rests atop the base of the structure. Constructed of marble, the altar is decorated on three sides with relief sculpture, which together form a continuous pictorial narrative. At the very top of the front north panel, the bust of a woman, typically identified as Taichi, is placed through a shuttered window. Below, the monument's inscription reads, Novolia Taichi, freedwoman of Luchias, for herself and Gaius Minatius Faustus, Augustalis and Paganus, who was decreed the bifelium for his merits by the Decurions and the consent of the people. This monument is built by Novolia Taichi for her freedmen and freedwomen and for those of Gaius Minatius Faustus lost alive. A figure relief theme lies in the register directly below the inscription. Two small figures, here, slaves or helpers, stand on either side of a grain or skeptical in the center of the scene. A group of six men dressed in togas stand on the right side, with Faustus at the head of the group. On the left is a gathering of figures with baskets. This segment presents a biographical detail of the couple's lives by depicting a grain doll they sponsored for the people of Pompeii. Grounding the central register and intersecting with the bust of Taichi is a border of scrolling and canvas finds, a motif with funerial associations that appears on all three of the sculpted panels. On the side of the tomb, closest to the Porta di Ercolano, the east relief panel depicts a bifelium, or double width bench, an honor awarded to Faustus for outstanding civic service as a member of the Augustalis, a civic organization of freedmen. Third and final sculpted relief panel adorns the west side of the altar, populating the very center is a ship on water with raved sails. Six figures appear on the deck of the vessel. The largest, perhaps Faustus, sits and steers a ship with a rudder while the others tend to the sails. West panel, although seemingly simple, is actually the one most heavily debated by scholars. Generally, there have been two approaches taken to interpreting the scene. First suggests it represents the journey of the deceased to the afterlife. The passage across a body of water to reach the afterlife was a well-known belief throughout the Greek and Roman worlds, and many scholars, including the famous Pompeian archaeologist August Mao, espoused this theory. Mao, for instance, lent support for this argument by quoting Ciceroes on old books. As for myself, I find the ripening of life truly agreeable. Here I come to the time of death, the more I feel like one who begins to see land and know that sometime he will enter the harbor after the long voyage. Adherents to the second interpretation believe the scene depicts the industry through which Faustus and Taiki acquired their fortune. The inclusion of an image signifying one's profession upon a funerary monument was not uncommon in the ancient Roman world. For instance, the famous first-century BCE tomb of the Bucchies outside the Porta Magiore in Rome, built in the form of a monumental bread oven that traded the riches of the world. The tomb is conspicuous in both its monumental form and location in light of these and other architectural antecedents and considering the architectural, iconographical, and textual components of the monument of Taiki and Faustus. It seems unlikely that the vessel depicted on the west face of the altar was meant to communicate the business in which Faustus and Taiki were. Perhaps the strongest evidence in favor of the industry interpretation comes from an understanding of the ways in which a viewer could approach the monument. I propose that the tomb of Taiki and Faustus carefully considers and controls a viewer's experience. When approaching the gate, the structure is visible from far down the road and we can kind of just barely see it here. Slowly, as one draws near to the tomb, we see a surge. Finally, just in front of Villa di Diomede, three lots northwest of the tomb, the ship and sailors can be seen. Bearing in mind that most viewers would have encountered the structure from the northwest as they approached the city gate, the west face of the altar would have been the one first observed. In front of the structure, the north panel comes into view, the east. During this mode of approach, the alter decoration reads, I believe, in sequential order as a continuous narrative of cause and effect. The first panel, with the cargo ship and crew, informs a viewer of how those whom the tomb celebrates. Next, the observer encounters the bust of Taiki, the inscription, and most importantly, the grain doll scene. The inscription identifies those buried within and informs a viewer of Faustus's service to the city and generosity. And the relief seen below depicts the bent. At last, one observes the east panel depicting the bifelium, the culmination of Faustus's accomplishments. Read in this manner, the three relief panels that adorn the altar narrate the highlights of the couple's life in chronological order. By beginning his career as a freedman in the shipping industry, Faustus was successful enough to become an Augustalis and provide grain doll to the city. For his generosity, he was awarded a double width bench in the feeder. This simple but powerful device tells the story of the couple's lives and successes presented in a clear and continuous manner and supports no interpretation but that of the family's involvement in the shipping industry. The narrative is, however, further complicated by the existence of a second tomb intended for the couple outside the Porta di Nocera, a second and more minor thoroughfare into the city. Generally believed to be the first tomb constructed by the pair, the Porta di Nocera tomb is simpler in the form of a small house with a pitched roof and open interior courtyard. The inscription is brief, relaying the names and titles of those whom the tomb honors. Unlike the inscription of the Porta di Edgolano monument, the Porta di Nocera inscription lists only Faustus's positions as Augustalis and Paganos. However, it does record that the place of burial was given by decree of the Decorions, members of the city council, a high honor. This observation has led some scholars to propose that Faustus was awarded the bicellium after the first tomb had already been erected, thus prompting the construction of a second tomb outside a more prominent gate. While chronologically sound, the absence of Faustus's remains and the inscription of the later tomb clearly indicated that Paganos patronage would suggest otherwise. The problem of the two tombs has often been explained as an attempt by Taiki to publicly elevate her status after the death of her husband. While I do not suggest this reading is incorrect, it is important to remember that the monument did not serve simply to honor Taiki, but also celebrated Faustus's achievements, which are, in fact, more prominent than Taiki's self-acgrandizement. At the same time, the monument does serve to highlight the wealth and generosity of Taiki, as the tomb housed the remains of the couple's many freedmen and women. The frequent appearance of her name in the epitaph, along with her portrait bust, helped construct her public identity as one of wealth, status, and generosity. Bearing in mind the multifaceted function of the cenotaph as a monument to self, family, and affiliates, what was it that prompted Taiki to commission the monument? Really holy selfish north self, less a gesture. The desire to celebrate herself and her husband does not seem reason enough to construct a second funerary monument. Might there have been an anxiety other than the oblivion of death? Armed with another important observation, a deeper understanding of Taiki's motives in building a cenotaph begins to unfold. As far as the existing literary record indicates, Faustus and Taiki had no known living heirs, freeborn or otherwise. Although she may not have begun her life as a Roman citizen, Taiki certainly ended her life as one. As has been the case throughout history, without a family's identity and status died with the last surviving family member. Without offspring, there would have been no one to carry on the family's newly established guns or sustain and increase the wealth and status Taiki and Faustus worked so hard to accumulate in their lifetime. From this perspective, Taiki's grand public celebration of herself and husband seems, at least in some sense, justified. A second memorial was one of the few forms of monumental commemoration available to Taiki, which, although redundant, offered her the possibility of immortality through the perseverance of her memory and public consciousness. Accordingly, the identity Taiki created for herself through the monument celebrated all the things she would lose with the end of her familial line. Location of the cenotaph outside the busy port to the echolano, the great height and visibility of the monument, and the lavish materials of the structure lend further support to this evaluation. A similar last-ditch attempt at propagating one's memory can be observed in the mid-1st century CE monument to Gaia Sestorius Priscus. His altar tomb, located outside the Porta di Vesuvio in Pompeii, is comprised of a rectangular altar on a raised base and surrounded by high enclosure walls. Interior of the tomb is painted in vivid fresco and on the exterior. The inscription is short but informative, recording. Two Gaia Sestorius Priscus, Adal, he lived 22 years. The place of burial and 2,000 cisterns she's for the funeral were given by the decree of the Decurion. Eprisca, his mother, paid for this with her own money. Born here is not only the fact that the deceased mother will be Eprisca, dedicated the tomb, but that she clearly announces her involvement in its construction. Here, as with the monument of Taiki, the patron of the final resting place of the family member as a vehicle through which to establish her own identity. With Prisca and Taiki alike, it was left to the woman to promote the survival of her memory. A further connection between the two tomb iconographic details, like the monument of Taiki and Faustus. The tomb of Priscus combines scenes of the Adal civic service with biographical moments. Considering both monuments were constructed and dedicated by women, perhaps this suggests a trope of female dedication in first century CE. The creation of one's identity was not a static process. Instead, it required constant renegotiation. The monumental funerary altar of Nevolia Taiki in its attempt to display the identity of its patron, functioned as a continual performance of identity and memory making, requiring the viewer to move around the monument to properly read the continual relief decoration. Spurring interest and the activation of memory, the funerary monument served to propagate the identity and importance of its honorees, sustaining the process of self-assertion for the deceased and the deaf. Through close consideration of the physical form and context of her tomb, public persona, and processes through which memory was created and propagated, Memorial of Nevolia Taiki underscores the function of funerary monuments as essential final markers of identity. I suggest the visibility, potency, and permanence of such memorials allowed patrons to make an important statement about who the deceased was and how they should be remembered. In this way, we can observe what it meant to be a freedwoman of considerable wealth and Pompeii in society through a funerary monument that requires the active engagement of a parker. Now, we're Nevolia Taiki alive to see her legacy today. She would be pleased with the 2,000 longevity of her memory. Thank you.