An Ego-Driven Necropolis? Roadside billboards — that’s the closest a pagan Roman could get to eternal life. It was all about being remembered. That’s why the road leading into any ancient Roman city was lined with a necropolis, where the dead were buried. The rich had their grandiose monuments. Others had their ashes stowed in the niches of a columbarium. With the help of a local guide, I dropped by Ostia Antica, Rome’s ancient seaport (which had a population of around 60,000 at its peak), to wo