The tomb of a baker, built where two ancient roads, the via Labicana and via Praenestina, slipped out of Rome’s eastern walls. This is no austere monument to a patrician; it is a blunt, cheerful boast in travertine and concrete. The structure is a curious hybrid: a squat, rectangular base topped with a cylindrical drum, its surface riddled with a series of deep, circular indentations. These are not decorative whims but literal kneading bowls, the tools of Eurysaces’ trade, rendered in stone. Above them, a frieze depicts the entire baking process, from grinding grain to weighing loaves, a proud, silent advertisement for a life’s work. Erected around the time of the late Republic, it stands as a rare, unapologetic tribute to commerce and craft rather than lineage or military glory. A baker’s monument, baked into the city’s edge.
Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.
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