Abstract
This article proposes an analysis of the funerals of “men of letters” within the most general level of changes in political rituals and forms of public consecration that characterized the late period of the empire and early republic. It is intended to present a comprehensive reading of such events, showing its relation to a particular memory system and more profound transformations in different ways to make sense of the past. Changes in the forms of written history, biographies and practice of monumentalization take on particular importance in this way of thinking, which does not imply disregarding the specificity of these different literary practices or discourse genres.
Keywords:
civic funerals; men of letters; writing of history.