Preoccupied with attaining immortality through remembrance by the living, the Romans made arrangements to ensure that they were properly memorialized. The wealthy built elaborate tombs that lined major roads into and out of cities, where they would be seen daily by residents and travelers. Most of these monuments bore commemorative inscriptions and were decorated with portraits and sometimes biographical scenes. In addition to serving as sites for annual rituals held by families in honor of the dead, the tombs conspicuously recalled the deceased to all those who passed by and saw them.

In the first century B.C., funerary reliefs such as this one were used to decorate modest tombs associated primarily with a class of Romans defined by their status as freed slaves (liberti) or the freeborn children of former slaves. Set into the walls of tomb chambers, either on the outside facing the street or lining the interior, these reliefs were typically carved with windowlike recesses occupied by groups of bust-length portraits. The portraits were executed in the same harshly realistic style used to represent members of the Roman upper classes, a self-conscious assertion of belonging to the dominant Roman culture.

The inscriptions on this relief identify the respectably dressed woman at left as Fausta Gessia. In the center, Publius Gessius, her husband-and her former owner, when she was enslaved-wears a military cuirass and grasps a sword hilt, emphasizing his dutiful service to the Roman army. The young man on the right, Publius Gessius Primus, is probably their son, who is identified as a freed slave, indicating that he was born before his father granted his mother's freedom. The inscriptions also relate that Fausta built the family's funerary monument with funds set aside in the will of Primus, who must have predeceased his mother.

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