C. di Fazio, Sepolture mitiche nel paesaggio urbano di Roma e del Lazio: figure e luoghi di memoria, in F. Gilotta, E. Polito, D. Palombi, G. Tagliamonte (a cura di), Aeterna memoria. Forme della memoria funeraria nel mondo classico, Atti dell’Incontro di studio (Gaeta, 8-11 maggio 2024), Roma Quasar 2025, pp. 175-184.

This essay reflects on the paradigmatic value of cultural and collective memory for Roman society, analyzing cases of “mythical burials” attested by literary sources and characterizing some spaces of the urban reality of ancient Rome. As a result of the mythical reinterpretation of the funerary dimension, they offer a valid magnifying glass on memorial processes. One can note forms of “funerary memory” based on a speculative conception that overwrites the urban landscape, anchoring particular heroic figures to specific places of the city, sacred in order to accommodate peculiar sepulcra, which is reserved a space within the city in which funerary uses and rites are not normally allowed. The anomaly would seem to be resolved in the sacredness of the practices that take place at these “burials” with a completely exceptional and religious character.