Rome Mourns Him and Honors Him with Paintings

When the news of the emperor’s death reached the imperial city, the Roman senate and people felt it as the heaviest and most painful of all disasters, and gave themselves over to boundless grief. The baths and markets were closed; the public shows and all the other amusements that people of leisure usually enjoy were stopped. Those who until lately had lived in luxurious ease now walked the streets in gloomy sadness, while all joined in blessing the name of the dead emperor as one who was dear to God and truly worthy of the imperial dignity. Nor did they express their sorrow only in words. They went on to honor him by dedicating paintings to his memory, with the same respect as before his death. The design of these pictures showed heaven itself, and pictured the emperor at rest in a dwelling in the upper air, above the vault of the sky. They too declared his sons alone to be emperors and Augusti, and begged earnestly to be allowed to receive the body of their emperor and hold his funeral in the imperial city. [a]