Download DEATH AND BURIAL IN ANCIENT ROME

DEATH AND BURIAL IN ANCIENT
ROME
THE POLLUTION OF DEATH
• “The Roman attitude towards the dead in
the period spanning the end of the
Republic and the high point of the Empire
was determined mainly by religious views
on the(im)mortality of the soul and the
concept of the “pollution of death”.
Contamination through contact with the
dead was thought to affect interpersonal
relationships, interfere with official duties
and prevent contact with the gods.
However, considerations of hygiene relating
to possible physical contamination also
• It was the custom at Rome, prior to the
enactment of the Laws of the Twelve Tables,
for the deceased relatives of the family to be
buried in their own homes, which gave rise to
the worship of the Lares, above referred to.
The inconvenience and unsanitary results
growing out of this practice no doubt
contributed largely to its abrogation.
THE TWELVE TABLES-450BC
Table 10
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Law III. No burial or cremation of a corpse shall take place in a city.
Law IV.
No greater expenses or mourning than is proper shall be permitted in funeral ceremonies.
Law V.
No one shall, hereafter, exceed the limit established by these laws for the celebration of funeral rites.
When a corpse is prepared for burial at home, not more than three women with their heads covered with
mourning veils shall be permitted to perform this service. The body may be enveloped in purple robes, and when
borne outside, ten flute players, at the most, shall accompany the funeral procession.
Law VIII.
Women shall not during a funeral lacerate their faces, or tear their cheeks with their nails; nor shall they utter
loud cries bewailing the dead.
Law IX.
No bones shall be taken from the body of a person who is dead, or from his ashes after cremation, in order that
funeral ceremonies may again be held elsewhere. When, however, anyone dies in a foreign country, or is killed in
war, a part of his remains may be transferred to the burial place of his ancestors
Law X.
The body of no dead slave shall be anointed; nor shall any drinking take place at his funeral, nor a banquet of any
kind be instituted in his honor.
Law XI.
No wine flavored with myrrh, or any other precious beverage, shall be poured upon a corpse while it is burning;
nor shall the funeral pile be sprinkled with wine.
Law XII.
Large wreaths[1] shall not be borne at a funeral; nor shall perfumes be burned on the altars.
ROMAN VIEWS OF DEATH
• “Think not
disdainfully of
death, but look on it
with favor; for even
death is one of the
things that Nature
wills.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus,
Meditations
• as a consequence of the notion of the manes (ancestral spirits)
which had to be honoured, the vast majority of Roman citizens
believed firmly in some form of life after death and therefore also in
the need to ensure that the soul was satisfactorily freed from the
dead body by means of the appropriate rituals.
• There was a widespread belief that an incomplete cremation or
burial could condemn the soul to roam restlessly for eternity
(Lindsay 2000:168).
• For example, the spirit of Emperor Caligula was said to have
continued to torment the community for a lengthy period after his
hasty, incomplete cremation (Suetonius, Caligula c.59).
• It was also said that Nero avoided the area of Misenum because the
sound of trumpets and lamentation had been heard at the grave of
his murdered mother Agrippina after her over-hasty
interment(Tacitus, Annals XIV.10).
• Burial customs and the pollution of death in ancient Rome even to
imperil civic functions. Those who were polluted could not make
sacrificial offerings or legally perform certain public offices (such as
the opening of buildings) (Livy ii.8.7).
• It was therefore very important for priests (particularly the priest of
Jupiter) and other spiritual leaders, as well as those in public office,
not to be contaminated by contact with the dead.
• The contamination could be incurred by touch, and in the case of
priests even by indirect contact, such as the sight of a dead person.
Since beans were by some philosophical groups believed to house
the souls of the dead, priests were not allowed to eat or even touch
them; indeed, they were not even supposed to mention them
• (Pliny, Historia Naturalis xviii.118-9).
Libitinarri
• A paradoxical situation developed, primarily due
to the concept of the pollution of death, insofar
as the undertakers and their assistants were
shunned, even abominated by the population, as
a consequence of their constant exposure to
death They were probably paid for their services
by the public health authority
• They had to live outside the city walls, and thus
the community of undertakers gradually found a
home outside the Esquiline gate in the area of
the Libitina forest
• 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 addItion to the body, survivors
burned gifts to and personal belongings of the
dead.
CREMATION
INHUMATION
The Romans in the most ancient times buried their dead though they also early
adopted, to some extent, the custom of burning, which is mentioned in the Twelve
Tables Burning, however, does not appear to have become general till the later times of
the republic; Marius was buried, and Sulla was the first of the Cornelian gens whose
body was burned Under the empire burning was almost universally practised, but was
gradually discontinued as Christianity so that it had fallen into disuse in the fourth
century
Ritual of death
• When a Roman was at the point
of death, his nearest relation
present endeavoured to catch the
last breath with his mouth.
• The ring was taken off the finger
of the dying person and as soon as
he was dead his eyes and mouth
were closed by the nearest, who
called upon the deceased by
name.
• The corpse was then washed, and
anointed with oil and perfumes by
slaves, called Pollinctores,
Roman atrium
• A small coin was then placed in the mouth of
the corpse, in order to pay the ferryman in
Hades and the body was laid out on a couch
in the vestibule of the house, with its feet
towards the door, and dressed in the best
robe which the deceased had worn when
alive.
• Ordinary citizens were dressed in a white
toga, and magistrates in their official robes
• All funerals in ancient times were performed at night, but afterwards the
poor only were buried at night, because they could not afford to have any
funeral procession The corpse was usually carried out of the house on the
eighth day after death.
• The order of the funeral procession was regulated by a person called
Designator or Dominus Funeris, who was attended by lictors dressed in
black.
• It was headed by musicians of various kinds (cornicines, siticines), who
played mournful, and next came mourning women, called Praeficae who
were hired to lament and sing p559the funeral song (naenia or lessus) in
praise of the deceased. These were sometimes followed by players and
buffoons (scurrae, histriones), of whom one, called Archimimus,
represented the character of the deceased, and imitated his words and
actions.
• Then came the slaves whom the deceased had liberated, wearing the cap
of liberty (pileati); the number of whom was occasionally very great, since
a master sometimes liberated all his slaves, in his will, in order to add to
the pomp of his funeral.
• ). Before the corpse persons walked wearing waxen
masks [Imago], representing the ancestors of the
deceased, and clothed in the official dresses of those
whom they represented and there were also carried
before the corpse the crowns or military rewards which
the deceased had gained
• The corpse was carried on a couch (lectica), to which
the name of Feretrum or Capulus was usually given;
but the bodies of poor citizens and of slaves were
carried on a common kind of bier or coffin, called
Sandapila; The Sandapila was carried by bearers,
IMAGINES
• Imagines (meaning literally, "images" or "faces") were Roman
funerary masks, thought to have been made of wax, that were hung
after the person's death, in the atrium of their ancestral home
providing they had held curule office in the Roman state. This meant
that they had to have been a censor, consul, praetor or curule aedile
(later, also plebeian aedile).
• The use of these masks was mostly ornamental, as they were placed
in the most public room of the house, with small inscriptions
beneath them (tituli for most of the time. Here they would be
viewed by all the clientia of the pater familias as the Roman house,
especially the atrium and the tablinum was a semi-public place.
• The masks also played a role in Roman funeral processions when
they would be worn by hired actors and would parade before the
dead man.
• The relations of the deceased walked behind
the corpse in mourning; his sons with their
heads veiled, and his daughters with their
heads bare and their hair dishevelled, contrary
to the usual practice of. They often uttered
loud lamentations, and the women beat their
breasts and tore their cheeks, though this was
forbidden by the Twelve Tables
• If the deceased was of illustrious rank, the funeral
procession went through the forum and stopped
before the rostra, where a funeral oration (laudatio) in
praise of the deceased was delivered
• This practice was of great antiquity among the Romans,
and is said by some writers to have been first
introduced by Publicola, who pronounced a funeral
oration in honour of his colleague Brutus
• Women also were honoured by funeral orations From
the forum the corpse was carried to the place of
burning or burial, which, according to a law of the
Twelve Tables, was obliged to be outside the city
Funeral orations
• The laudatio Iuliae amitae
• “The family of my aunt Iulia is descended by
her mother from the kings and on her father's
side is akin to the immortal gods. For the
Marcii Reges go back to Ancus Marcius, and
the Iulii, the family of which ours is a branch,
to Venus. Our stock therefore has at once the
sanctity of kings, whose power is supreme
among mortal men, and the claim to reverence
which attaches to the gods, who hold sway
over kings themselves."
• 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
Laudatio Turiae
• ...of my wife
•
(Left-hand column)
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(line 1)... through the honesty of your character ...
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(2) ... you remained ...
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(3) You became an orphan suddenly before the day of our wedding,
when both your parents were murdered together in the solitude of the
countryside. It was mainly due to your efforts that the death of your
parents was not left unavenged. For I had left for Macedonia, and your
sister's husband Cluvius had gone to the Province of Africa.(in 49 BC)
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(7) So strenuously did you perform your filial duty by your insistent
demands and your pursuit of justice that we could not have done more if
we had been present. But these merits you have in common with that
most virtuous lady your sister.
• READ THE REST OF THE SPEECH ATTACHED AND HIGHLIGHT THE SECTIONS
WHICH REVEAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE LIVES OF ROMAN WOMEN
FUNERAL INSCRIPTIONS
“
To the gods of the netherworld
To Julia Chrestes
Junius Phoebion
for his wife
well deserving it
he made it."
• The corpse was burnt on a pile of wood.
• When the flames began to rise, various
perfumes were thrown into the fire (called by
Cicero (l.c.) sumptuosa respersio), though this
practice was forbidden by the Twelve Tables;
cups of oil, ornaments, clothes, dishes of food,
and other things, which were supposed to be
agreeable to the deceased, were also thrown
upon the flames
• When the pile was burnt down, the embers
were soaked with wine, and the bones and
ashes of the deceased were gathered by the
nearest relatives who sprinkled them with
perfumes, and placed them in a vessel called
urna which was made of various materials,
according to the circumstances of individuals.
• Most of the funeral urns in the British
Museum are made of marble, alabaster, or
baked clay. They are of various shapes, but
most commonly square or round; and upon
them there is usually an inscription or
epitaph
• The urns were placed in sepulchres, which, as already
stated, were outside the city, though in a few cases we read
of the dead being buried within the city.
• The places for burial were either public or private. The
public places of burial were of two kinds; one for illustrious
citizens, who were buried at the public expense, and the
other for poor citizens, who could not afford to purchase
ground for the purpose.
• The former was in the Campus Martius, which was
ornamented with the tombs of the illustrious dead. The
tombs of the rich were commonly built of marble, and the
ground enclosed with an iron railing or wall, and planted
round with trees
• Private tombs were either built by an individual for
himself and the members of his family (sepulcra
familiaria), or for himself and his heirs (sepulcra
hereditaria, . A tomb, which was fitted up with niches
to receive the funeral urns, was called columbarium,
on account of the resemblance of these niches to the
holes of a pigeon-house. In these tombs the ashes of
the freedmen and slaves of the great families were
frequently placed in vessels made of baked clay, called
ollae, which were let into the thickness of the wall
within these niches, the lids only being seen, and the
inscriptions placed in front. Several of these
columbaria are still to be seen at Rome.
Tomb of Naevola Tyche
Collambariums
• After the bones had been placed in the urn at
the funeral, the friends returned home. They
then underwent a further purification called
suffitio, which consisted in being sprinkled
with water and stepping over a fire .
• A feast was given in honour of the dead, but it
is uncertain on what day
• Among the tombs at Pompeii there is a funeral
triclinium for the celebration of these feasts,
which is represented in the annexed woodcut
(Mazois, Pomp. i. pl. XX). It is open to the sky,
and the walls are ornamented by paintings of
animals in the centre of compartments, which
have borders of flowers. The triclinium is
made of stone, with a pedestal in the centre
to receive the table.
• After the funeral of great men, there was, in
addition to the feast for the friends of the
deceased, a distribution of raw meat to the
people, called Visceratio and sometimes a public
banquet .
• Combats of gladiators and other games were also
frequently exhibited in honour of the deceased.
• Thus at the funeral of P. Licinius Crassus, who had
been Pontifex Maximus, raw meat was distributed
to the people, a hundred and twenty gladiators
fought, and funeral games were celebrated for
three days; at the end of which a public banquet
was given in the forum .
• Public feasts and funeral games were sometimes
given on the anniversary of funerals.
• The Romans, like the Greeks, were
accustomed to visit the tombs of their
relatives at certain periods, and to offer them
sacrifices and various gifts, which were called
Inferiae and Parentalia. The Romans appear
to have regarded the Manes or departed
souls of their ancestors as gods; whence
arose the practice of presenting to them
oblations, which consisted of victims, wine,
milk, garlands of flowers, and other The
tombs were sometimes illuminated on these
occasions with lamps
• In the latter end of the month of February
there was a festival, called Feralia, in which
the Romans were accustomed to carry food
to the sepulchres for the use of the dead
• The Romans, like ourselves, were accustomed
to wear mourning for their deceased friends,
which appears to have been black or darkblue (atra) under the republic for both sexes .
• In a public mourning on account of some
signal calamity, as for instance the loss of a
battle or the death of an emperor, there was a
total cessation from business,
Potters field- deviant burials
• Potter's Field
• The Potter's Field was located on the eastern part of the Esquiline
Hill. There were grave pits for the:pauper class riffraffs friendless
poor plague-infected bodies dead animals abandoned slaves
arena victims criminal outcasts unidentified dead
• The Potter's Field eventually was removed. These open pits gave
away an unbearable stench and provided disease-breeding
pollution. Augustus created new dumping grounds elsewhere and
buried the Potter's Field under 25 ft. of soil. The Field was
renamed Horti Maecenatis (Garden of Maecanas)
• The Esquiline was also a place for executing criminals of
authorities. The decease would be left to the birds and beast of
prey near the Esquiline Gate
POLYBIUS ON ROMAN FUNERALS
“When any illustrious person dies, he is carried in procession with the rest
of the funeral pomp, to the rostra in the forum; sometimes placed
conspicuous in an upright posture; and sometimes, though less frequently,
reclined. And while the people are all standing round, his son, if he has left
one of sufficient age, and who is then at Rome, or, if otherwise, some person
of his kindred, ascends the rostra, and extols the virtues of the deceased, and
the great deeds that were performed by him in his life. By this discourse,
which recalls his past actions to remembrance, and places them in open view
before all the multitude, not those alone who were sharers in his victories, but
even the rest who bore no part in his exploits, are moved to such sympathy of
sorrow, that the accident seems rather to be a public misfortune, than a
private loss. He is then buried with the usual rites; and afterwards an image,
which both in features and complexion expresses an exact resemblance of his
face, is set up in the most conspicuous part of the house, enclosed in a shrine
of wood. Upon solemn festivals, these images are uncovered, and adorned
with the greatest care.
And when any other person of the same family dies, they are carried also in
the funeral “