Roman Civilization

CMS 206 /History 206

• The archeological evidence indicates that the Romans practiced both cremation and inhumation (what we'd call "burial"). From the mid 3rd century B.C.E. on, burial became increasingly more popular.
• Cremations took place either in a section of the cemetary set aside for the event (ustrinum), or at the bustum (the grave site where the ashes would be buried). In addtion to the body, survivors burned gifts to and personal belongings of the dead. The ashes were gathered and buried in a container which could be anything from a cloth bag to a marble chest. Alternatively, especially for poorer citizens, the containers would be placed in a family's personal niche (nidus) in a dovecote (columbarium) erected and maintained by a neighborhood funeral club (collegia funeraticia). Neighbors pooled their resources to create a burial insurance fund that guaranteed all its members could afford a decent funeral. The practice of cremation, which Jews and Christians objected to on theological grounds, did not die out until the 5th century, C.E.
• The Etruscans made elaborate tombs in which they buried their dead (at least their wealthy dead). Wealthy Romans similarly had elaborate and monumental tombs (sometimes oddly shaped, e.g. a pyramid, or a cylinder, like that of Caecilia Metella). The tomb of Augustus and the mausoleum of Hadrian are good examples of how monumental a Roman Emperor's tomb could get.. Some burial sites were called "necropoleis" [cities of the dead], and located outside the city walls. [A good example is the necropolis at Pompeii. These cemetaries (which seem almost identical to modern ones) were laid out like minature cities with narrow lanes along side of which lay graves, tombs and tombstones. Alternatively, as in Rome, the roads leading from the city, could become burial sites. The Scipiones, one of the most important and powerful families in Rome, for example, maintained their family tombs on a side street leading off the Via Appia. (The OAG has an excellent description of the tombs of the Scipiones, p. 328 ff.). Modern Romans love to picnic among these tombs.
• Just like today, professional undertakers organized Roman funerals. Among the poorer classes, expenses were paid for by the collegia funeraticia. Family and friends would lead the bier by the shortest route out of the city to the tomb site. Rituals were performed at the grave in which offerings of food and drink were made for the dead. Then, a "funeral lunch" was held for the mourners at the grave site. Nine days later, the family held another feast to honor the departed (cena novendialis) and particularly in the year of the death, but generally for years to come, would honor the deceased on feast days for the dead (like the Parentalia).
• The rich had much more elaborate funerals. The dead, particularly those who had been famous or politically prominent, might lie in state for days before the funeral. The funeral procession itself was a virtual parade. The undertakers supplied mourning women, musicians, dancers and mimes. Members of the family (if their number had included members who had won prominent political office [curile magistracies] would dress up like deceased ancestors, wearing their imagines (death masks that were prominently displayed in the family home until the next funeral) and riding in chariots. The procession moved from the family home, through the main streets of the city to the Forum. At the Forum, a member of the family gave a speech in praise of the deceased (a laudatio funebris or funeral oration) whose bier was propped into an upright position. Polybius thought the Roman funeral was one of the most fundamental ways that Romans educated their children (RCiv, v.I, #182, p. 518).
• Grave sites, whether the deceased had been buried or cremated, typically were marked by inscribed tombstones and wooden grave markers. Thousands of thousands of these tombstones, from all over the Roman Empire, have survived (althought the wooden grave markers of the poorest classes have not). The tombstones could contain a sculpture of the dead person, demographic information, a list of the public offices held and public services performed by the deceased, and a dedicatory inscription by the family member who paid for the tombstone. It was not uncommon at all for slaves or freedmen of a childless person to raise the tombstone.
• Although tombstone inscriptions were often formulaic, they also could be intensely personal (e.g., the Laudatio Turiae, RCiv, v.1, #183, p. 519). Consider the dedicatory inscription to a woman named Claudia (RCiv, v.1, #184, p.524):
  • Stranger, my message is short. Stand by and read it through. Here is the unlovely tomb of a lovely woman. Her parents called her Claudia by name. She loved her husband with all her heart. She bore two sons; of these she leaves one on earth; under the earth she has placed the other. She was charming in converse, yet gentle in bearing. She kept house, she made woool. That's my last word. Go your way.
• Questions to think about:
  • What do you think the choice between the burial practices of cremation and inhumation can tell us about a society and its beliefs?
  • Why did Polybius think that the Roman funeral was a means of education.
  • What sorts of information can historians get from funerary inscriptions? What kinds of questions should we be asking these stones?

DEREK B. COUNTS, "Regum Externorum Consuetudine: The Nature and Function of Embalming in Rome" - (note, link is to abstract, you have to download article if you're interested)

Etruscan Death Rituals