Association Debates in the Roman Empire: Collegia Funeraticia

This study, which centers on the connection between associations and funerary practices during the Roman Imperial Period, revisits the long-standing debate over the existence of associations said to have been primarily established to provide funeral services for their members. The thesis of collegia funeraticia (funeral associations), proposed by Theodor Mommsen in his work De collegiis et sodaliciis Romanorum, was widely accepted in academic literature until the early twentieth century. However, modern researchers have criticized Mommsen's thesis on funeral associations, reinterpreting the association inscriptions considered in this field. The debates have centered around inscriptions belonging to associations often associated with the tenuiores (low-income groups), whose members were thought to be unable to afford funeral expenses. These sources include the Lanuvium inscription, dating to the 2nd century AD, which contains the rules of an association founded in Rome for the cult of Diana and Antinous; an inscription from a religious association dedicated to the cult of Aesculapius and Hygia in the city of Rome; and a text found at Alburnus Maior recording the dissolution of the Iovis Cerneni association.The study aims, on the basis of association inscriptions, to establish the position of funerary practices within the wider scope of these organizations’ activities. Furthermore, views on the category of association assumed to be exclusive to the poor and providing burial services are examined in light of academic debates ranging from early research to the present day.