The Private Life of the Romans Part 18

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 195. STREET OF TOMBS AT POMPEII]

--421. Places of Burial.--The most ancient place of burial, at least for the head of the house, was beneath the hearthstone in the _atrium_ of his house, later in the garden behind his house, but this had ceased to be the custom long before history begins, and the Twelve Tables forbade the burial or even the burning of the dead within the walls of the city. For the very poor, places of burial were provided in remote localities outside the walls, corresponding in some degree to the Potter's Field of modern cities. The well-to-do made their burial-places as conspicuous as their means would permit, with the hope that the inscriptions upon the monuments would keep alive the names and virtues of the dead, and with the idea, perhaps, that they still had some part in the busy life around them. To this end they lined the great roads on either side for miles out of the cities with rows of tombs of the most elaborate and costly architecture. In the vicinity of Rome the Appian way as the oldest (--385) showed the monuments of the n.o.blest and most ancient families, but none of the roads lacked similar memorials. Many of these tombs were standing in the sixteenth century, a few still remain. The same custom was followed in the smaller towns, and an idea of the appearance of the monuments may be had from the so-called "Street of Tombs" in Pompeii (Fig. 195). There were other burial-places near the cities, of course, less conspicuous and less expensive, and on the farms and country estates like provision was made for persons of humbler station.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 196. EXTERIOR OF TOMB AT POMPEII]

--422. The Tombs.--The tombs, whether intended to receive the bodies or merely the ashes, or both, differed widely in size and construction with the different purposes for which they were erected. Some were for individuals only, but these in most cases were strictly public memorials as distinguished from actual tombs intended to receive the remains of the dead. The larger number of those that lined the roads were family tombs, ample in size for whole generations of descendants and retainers of the family, including guest-friends (--185), who had died away from their own homes, and freedmen (--175). There were also the burial-places of the _gentes_ (--21), in which provision was made for all, even the humblest and poorest, who claimed connection with the _gens_ and had had a place in its formal organization (--22).

Others were erected on a large scale by speculators who sold at low prices s.p.a.ce enough for an urn or two to persons too poor to erect tombs of their own and without any claim on a family or gentile burying-place. In imitation of these structures others were erected on the same plan by burial societies formed by persons of the artisan cla.s.s, and others still by benevolent men, as we have seen baths (--373) and libraries (--402) erected and maintained for the public good. Something will be said of the tombs of all these kinds after the public burying-places have been described.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 197. SECTIONS OF TOMB SHOWN IN FIGURE 196]

--423. The Potter's Field.--During the Republic the Esquiline Hill, or at least the eastern part of it, was the place to which was carted all the refuse of the city that the sewers would not carry away. Here, too, were the gravepits (_puticuli_) for the pauper cla.s.s. They were merely holes in the ground, about twelve feet square, without lining of any kind. Into them were thrown the bodies of the friendless poor, and along with them and over them the carca.s.ses of dead animals and the filth and sc.r.a.pings of the streets. The pits were kept open, uncovered apparently even when filled, and the stench and the disease-breeding pollution made the hill absolutely uninhabitable.

Under Augustus the danger to the health of the whole city became so great that the dumping grounds were moved to a greater distance, and the Esquiline, covered over pits and all with pure soil to the depth of twenty-five feet, was made a park, known as the _Horti Maecenatis_.

--424. It is not to be understood, however, that the bodies of Roman citizens were ordinarily disposed of in this revolting way. Faithful freedmen were cared for by their patrons, the industrious poor made provision for themselves in cooperative societies mentioned above, and the proletariate cla.s.s (--411) was in general saved from such a fate by gentile relations, by patrons (--181), or by the benevolence of individuals. Only in times of plague and pestilence, it is safe to say, were the bodies of known citizens cast into these pits, as under like circ.u.mstances bodies have been burned in heaps in our own cities.

The uncounted thousands that peopled the Potter's Field of Rome were the riffraff from foreign lands, abandoned slaves (--156), the victims that perished in the arena (--362), outcasts of the criminal cla.s.s, and the "unidentified" that are buried nowadays at public expense.

Criminals put to death by authority were not buried at all; their carca.s.ses were left to birds and beasts of prey at the place of execution near the Esquiline gate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 198. INTERIOR OF TOMB AT POMPEII]

--425. Plan of Tombs and Grounds.--The utmost diversity prevails in the outward form and construction of the tombs, but those of the cla.s.sical period seem to have been planned with the thought that the tomb was to be a home for the dead and that they were not altogether cut off from the living. The tomb, therefore, whether built for one person or for many, was ordinarily a building inclosing a room (_sepulcrum_), and this room was really the important thing. Attention has already been called (--189) to the fact that even the urns had in ancient times the shape of the house of one room. The floor of the _sepulcrum_ was quite commonly below the level of the surrounding grounds and was reached by a short flight of steps. Around the base of the walls ran a slightly elevated platform (_podium_, cf. ----337, 357) on which were placed the coffins of those who were buried, while the urns were placed either on the platform or in niches in the wall. An altar or shrine is often found, at which offerings were made to the _manes_ of the departed.

Lamps are very common and so are other simple articles of furniture, and the walls, floors, and ceilings are decorated in the same style as those of houses (--220 f.). Things that the dead liked to have around them when living, especially things that they had used in their ordinary occupations, were placed in the tomb at the time of burial, or burned with them on the funeral pyre, and in general an effort was made to give an air of life to the chamber of rest. The interior of a tomb at Pompeii is shown in Fig. 198, and sections of another in Fig.

197, --423.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 199. PLAN OF GROUNDS ABOUT TOMB]

--426. The monument itself was always built upon a plot of ground as s.p.a.cious as the means of the builders would permit, sometimes several acres in extent. In it provision was made for the comfort of surviving members of the family, who were bound to visit the resting-place of their dead on certain regularly recurring festivals (--438). If the grounds were small there would be at least a seat, perhaps a bench. On more extensive grounds there were places of shelter, arbors, or summer houses. Dining-rooms, too, in which were celebrated the anniversary feasts, and private _ustrinae_ (places for the burning of bodies) are frequently mentioned. Often the grounds were laid out as gardens or parks, with trees and flowers, wells, cisterns or fountains, and even a house, with other buildings perhaps, for the accommodation of the slaves or freedmen who were in charge. A plan of such a garden is shown in Fig. 199. In the middle of the garden is the _area_, the technical word for the plot of ground set aside for the tomb, with several buildings upon it, one of which is a storehouse or granary (_horreum_); around the tomb itself are beds of roses and violets, used in festivals (--438), and around them in turn are grapes trained on trellises. In the front is a terrace (_solarium_, cf. --207), and in the rear two pools (_piscinae_) connected with the _area_ by a little ca.n.a.l, while at the back is a thicket of shrubbery (_harundinetum_).

The purpose of the granary is not clear as no grain seems to have been raised on the lot, but it may have been left where it stood before the ground was consecrated. A tomb surrounded by grounds of some extent was called a _cepotaphium_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 200. RUINS OF COLUMBARIUM OF LIVIA]

--427. Exterior of the Tombs.--An idea of the exterior appearance of monuments of the better sort may be had from Figs. 193-196. The forms are very many, those of the altar and temple are the most common, perhaps, but memorial arches and niches are often found, and at Pompeii the semicircular bench that was used for conversation out of doors occurs several times, covered and uncovered. Not all of the tombs have the sepulchral chamber, the remains being sometimes deposited in the earth beneath the monument. In such cases a tube or pipe of lead ran from the receptacle to the surface, through which offerings of wine and milk could be poured (----429, 438). In Fig. 193, --420, is shown the round monument at Caieta of Lucius Munatius Plancus, one of Caesar's marshals (_legati_) in Gaul, the inscription[1] on which recounts the positions he had filled and the work he had done. In Fig. 194, --420, is shown the pyramid erected at Rome in honor of Caius Cestius by his heirs, one of whom was Marcus Agrippa. According to the inscription on it the monument was completed in 330 days. The most imposing of all was the mausoleum of Hadrian (Fig. 205, --438) at Rome, now the castle of St. Angelo. A less elaborate exterior is that of the "tomb with the marble door" at Pompeii, given in Fig. 196, --422.

[Footnote 1: Inscription on the tomb of Plancus: "Lucius Munatius Plancus, son, etc. (--39), consul, censor, twice imperator, member of the board of seven in charge of sacrificial feasts. He celebrated a triumph over the people of Raetia. From the spoils of war he erected a temple to Saturn. In Italy he a.s.signed lands about Beneventum. In Gaul he planted colonies at Lugdunum and Raurica."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 201. GROUND PLAN OF COLUMBARIUM OF LIVIA]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 202. SARCOPHAGUS OF SCIPIO]

--428. The Columbaria.--From the family tombs were developed the immense structures mentioned in --422 intended to receive great numbers of urns. They began to be erected in the time of Augustus and seem to have been confined to Rome, where the high price of land made the purchase of private burial-grounds impossible for the poorer cla.s.ses.

An idea of their interior arrangements may be had from the ruins (Fig.

200) of one erected on the Appian way for the freedmen of Livia, the wife of Augustus. From their resemblance to a dovecote or pigeon house they were called _columbaria_. They are usually partly underground, rectangular in form, with great numbers of the niches (also called _columbaria_) running in regular rows horizontally (_gradus_) and vertically (_ordines_). In the larger _columbaria_ provision was made for as many as a thousand urns. Around the walls at the base was a _podium_, on which were placed the sarcophagi of those whose remains had not been burned, and sometimes chambers were excavated beneath the floor for the same purpose. In the _podium_ were also niches that no s.p.a.ce might be lost. If the height of the building was great enough to warrant it, wooden galleries ran around the walls. Access to the room was given by a stairway in which were niches, too; light was furnished by small windows near the ceiling, and walls and floors were handsomely finished and decorated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 203. AEDICULA IN COLUMBARIUM]

--429. The niches were sometimes rectangular in form, but more commonly half round, as shown in Figs. 200 and 203. Some of the _columbaria_ have the lower rows rectangular, those above arched. They contained ordinarily two urns (_ollae_, _ollae ossuariae_) each, arranged side by side, that they might be visible from the front. Occasionally the niches were made deep enough for two sets of urns, those behind being elevated a little over those in front. Above or below each niche was fastened to the wall a piece of marble (_t.i.tulus_) on which was cut the name of the owner. If a person required for his family a group of four or six niches, it was customary to mark them off from the others by wall decorations to show that they made a unit; a very common way was to erect pillars at the sides so as to give the appearance of the front of a temple (Fig. 203). Such groups were called _aediculae_. The value of the places depended upon their position, those in the higher rows (_gradus_) being less expensive than those near the floor, those under the stairway the least desirable of all. The urns themselves were of various materials (--437) and usually cemented to the bottom of the niches. The tops could be removed, but they, too, were sealed after the ashes had been placed in them, small openings being left through which offerings of milk and wine could be poured. On the urns or their tops were painted the names of the dead with sometimes the day and the month of death. The year is almost never found. Over the door of such a _columbarium_ on the outside was cut an inscription giving the names of the owners, the date of erection, and other particulars.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 204. CINERARY URNS]

--430. Burial Societies.--Early in the Empire a.s.sociations were formed for the purpose of meeting the funeral expenses of their members, whether the remains were to be buried or cremated, or for the purpose of building _columbaria_, or for both. These cooperative a.s.sociations (_collegia funeraticia_) started originally among members of the same guild (--412) or among persons of the same occupation. They called themselves by many names, _cultores_ of this deity or that, _collegia salutaria_, _collegia iuvenum_, etc., but their objects and methods were practically the same. If the members had provided places for the disposal of their bodies after death they now provided for the necessary funeral expenses by paying into the common fund weekly a small fixed sum, easily within the reach of the poorest of them. When a member died a stated sum was drawn for his funeral from the treasury, a committee saw that the rites were decently performed, and at the proper seasons (--438) the society made corporate offerings to the dead. If the purpose of the society was the building of a _columbarium_, the cost was first determined and the sum total divided into what we should call shares (_sortes viriles_), each member taking as many as he could afford and paying their value into the treasury.

Sometimes a benevolent person would contribute toward the expense of the undertaking, and then such a person would be made an honorary member of the society with the t.i.tle of _patronus_ or _patrona_. The erection of the building was intrusted to a number of _curatores_, chosen by ballot, naturally the largest shareholders and most influential men. They let the contracts and superintended the construction, rendering account for all the money expended. The office of the curators was considered very honorable, especially as their names appeared on the inscription without the building, and they often showed their appreciation of the honor done them by providing at their own expense for the decoration of the interior, or by furnis.h.i.+ng all or a part of the _t.i.tuli_, _ollae_, etc., or by erecting on the surrounding grounds places of shelter and dining-rooms for the use of the members, like those mentioned in --426.

--431. After the completion of the building the _curatores_ allotted the niches to the individual members. The niches were either numbered consecutively throughout or their position was fixed by the number of the _ordo_ and _gradus_ (--428) in which they were situated. Because they were not all equally desirable, as has been explained, the curators divided them into sections as fairly as possible and then a.s.signed the sections (_loci_) by lot to the shareholders. If a man held several shares of stock he received a corresponding number of _loci_, though they might be in widely different parts of the building. The members were allowed freely to dispose of their holdings by exchange, sale, or gift, and many of the larger stockholders probably engaged in the enterprise for the sake of the profits to be made in this way. After the division was made the owners had their names cut upon the _t.i.tuli_, and might put up the columns to mark the _aediculae_, set up statues, etc., if they pleased. Some of the _t.i.tuli_ give besides the name of the owner the number and position of his _loci_ or _ollae_. Sometimes they record the purchase of _ollae_, giving the number bought and the name of the previous owner. Sometimes the names on the _ollae_ do not correspond with that over the niche, showing that the owner had sold a part only of his holdings, or that the purchaser had not taken the trouble to replace the _t.i.tulus_. The expenses of maintenance were probably paid from the weekly dues of the members, as were the funeral benefits.

L ABVCIVS HERMES IN HOC ORDINE AB IMO AD SVMMVM COLVMBARIA IX OLLAE XVIII SIBI POSTERISQVE SVIS[2]

[Footnote 2: t.i.tulus in Columbarium: "Lucius Abucius Hermes (has acquired) in this row, running from the ground to the top, nine niches with eighteen urns for (the ashes of) himself and his descendants."]

--432. Funeral Ceremonies.--The detailed accounts of funeral ceremonies that have come down to us relate almost exclusively to those of persons of high position, and the information gleaned from other sources (--12) is so scattered that there is great danger of confusing usages of widely different times. It is quite certain, however, that very young children were buried at all times simply and quietly (_funus acerb.u.m_), that no ceremonies at all attended the burial of slaves (--420) when conducted by their masters (nothing is known of the forms used by the burial societies mentioned above), and that citizens of the lowest cla.s.s were laid to rest without public parade (_funus plebeium_). It is also known that burials took place by night except during the last century of the Republic and the first two centuries of the Empire, and it is natural to suppose that, even in the case of persons of high position, there was ordinarily much less of pomp and parade than on occasions that the Roman writers thought it worth while to describe. This has been found true in the matter of wedding festivities (--79). It will be convenient to take in order the proceedings at the house, the funeral procession, and the ceremonies at the place of burial.

--433. At the House.--When the Roman died at home surrounded by his family, it was the duty of his oldest son to bend over the body and call him by name, as if with the hope of recalling him to life. The formal performance of the act (_conclamatio_) he announced immediately with the words: _conclamatum est_. The eyes of the dead were then closed, the body was washed with warm water and anointed, the limbs were straightened, and if the deceased had held a curule office a wax impression of his features was taken. The body was then dressed in the toga (--240) with all the insignia of rank that the dead had been ent.i.tled to wear in life, and was placed upon the funeral couch (_lectus funebris_) in the _atrium_ (--198), with the feet to the door, to lie in state until the time of the funeral. The couch was surrounded with flowers, and incense was burned about it. Before the door of the house were set branches of pine or cypress as a warning that the house was polluted by death. The simple offices that have been described were performed in humble life by the relatives and servants, in other cases by professional undertakers (_libitinarii_), who also embalmed the body and superintended all the rest of the ceremonies. Reference is made occasionally to the kissing of the dying person as he breathed his last, as if this last breath was to be caught in the mouth of the living, and in very early and very late times it was undoubtedly the custom to put a small coin between the teeth of the dead with which to pay his pa.s.sage across the Styx in Charon's boat. Neither of these formalities seems to have obtained generally in cla.s.sical times.

--434. The Funeral Procession.--The funeral procession of the ordinary citizen was simple enough. Notice was given to neighbors and friends, and surrounded by them and by the family, carried on the shoulders of the sons or other near relatives, with perhaps a band of musicians in the lead, the body was borne to the tomb. The procession of one of the mighty, on the other hand, was marshaled with all possible display and ostentation. It occurred as soon after death as the necessary preparations could be made, there being no fixed intervening time.

Notice was given by a public crier in the ancient words of style: _Ollus Quiris leto datus. Exsequias, quibus est commodum, ire iam tempus est. Ollus ex aedibus effertur._[3] Questions of order and precedence were settled by one of the undertakers (_designator_). At the head went a band of musicians, followed at least occasionally by persons singing dirges in praise of the dead, and by bands of buffoons and jesters, who made merry with the bystanders and imitated even the dead himself. Then came the imposing part of the display. The wax masks of the dead man's ancestors had been taken from their place in the _alae_ (--200) and a.s.sumed by actors in the dress appropriate to the time and station of the worthies they represented. It must have seemed as if the ancient dead had returned to earth to guide their descendant to his place among them. Servius tells us that six hundred _imagines_ were displayed at the funeral of the young Marcellus, the nephew of Augustus. Then followed the memorials of the great deeds of the deceased, if he had been a general, as in a triumphal procession, and then the dead himself, carried with face uncovered on a lofty couch. Then came the family, including freedmen (especially those made free by the testament of their master) and slaves, and then the friends, all in mourning garb (----246, 254), and all freely giving expression to the emotion that we try to suppress on such occasions.

Torch-bearers attended the train, even by day, as a remembrance of the older custom of burial by night.

[Footnote 3: "This citizen has been surrendered to death. For those who find it convenient it is now time to attend the funeral. He is being brought from his house."]

--435. The Funeral Oration.--The procession pa.s.sed from the house directly to the place of interment, unless the deceased was a person of sufficient consequence to be honored by public authority with a funeral oration (_laudatio_) in the forum. In this case the funeral coach was placed before the _rostra_, the men in the masks took their places on curule chairs (--225) around it, the general crowd was ma.s.sed in a semicircle behind, and a son or other near relative delivered the address. It recited the virtues and achievements of the dead and recounted the history of the family to which he belonged. Like such addresses in more recent times it contained much that was false and more that was exaggerated. The honor of the _laudatio_ was freely given in later times, especially to members of the imperial family, including women. Under the Republic it was less common and more highly prized, and so far as we know the only women so honored belonged to the _gens Iulia_. It will be remembered that it was Caesar's address on the occasion of the funeral of his aunt, the widow of Marius, that pointed him out to the opponents of Sulla as a future leader. When the address in the forum was not authorized, one was sometimes given more privately at the grave or at the house.

--436. At the Tomb.--When the train reached the place of burial the proceedings varied according to the time, but all provided for the three things ceremonially necessary: the consecration of the resting-place, the casting of earth upon the remains, and the purification of all polluted by the death. In ancient times the body, if buried, was lowered into the grave either upon the couch on which it had been brought to the spot, or in a coffin of burnt clay or stone. If the body was to be burned a shallow grave was dug and filled with dry wood, upon which the couch and body were placed. The pile was then fired and when wood and body had been consumed, earth was heaped over the ashes into a mound (_tumulus_). Such a grave in which the body was burned was called _bustum_, and was consecrated as a regular _sepulcrum_ by the ceremonies mentioned below. In later times the body, if not to be burned, was placed in a sarcophagus (Fig. 203) already prepared in the tomb (--425). If the remains were to be burned they were taken to the _ustrina_ (--426), which was not regarded as a part of the _sepulcrum_, and placed upon the pile of wood (_rogus_).

Spices and perfumes were thrown upon it, together with gifts (--425) and tokens from the persons present. The pyre was then lighted with a torch by a relative, who kept his face averted during the act. After the fire had burned out the embers were extinguished with water or wine and those present called a last farewell to the dead. The water of purification was then thrice sprinkled over those present, and all except the immediate family left the place. The ashes were then collected in a cloth to be dried, and the ceremonial bone (--420), called _os resectum_, was buried. A sacrifice of a pig was then made, by which the place of burial was made sacred ground, and food (_silicernium_) was eaten together by the mourners. They then returned to the house which was purified by an offering to the _Lares_, and the funeral rites were over.

--437. After Ceremonies.--With the day of the burial or burning of the remains began the Nine Days of Sorrow, solemnly observed by the immediate family. Some time during this period, when the ashes had had time to dry thoroughly, members of the family went privately to the _ustrina_, removed them from the cloth, placed them in an _olla_ (Fig.

204) of earthenware, gla.s.s, alabaster, bronze, or other material, and with bare feet and loosened girdles carried them into the _sepulcrum_ (--425). At the end of the nine days the _sacrificium novendiale_ was offered to the dead and the _cena novendialis_ was celebrated at the house. On this day, too, the heirs formally entered upon their inheritance and the funeral games (--344) were originally given. The period of mourning, however, was not concluded on the ninth day. For husband or wife, ascendants, and grown descendants mourning was worn for ten months, the ancient year; for other adult relatives, eight months; for children between the ages of three and ten years, for as many months as they were years old.

--438. Memorial Festivals.--The memory of the dead was kept alive by regularly recurring days of obligation of both public and private character. To the former belong the _parentalia_, or _dies parentales_ (--75), lasting from the 13th to the 21st of February, the final day being especially distinguished as the _feralia_. To the latter belong the annual celebration of the birthday (or the burial-day) of the person commemorated, and the festivals of violets and roses (_violaria_, _rosaria_), about the end of March and May respectively, when violets and roses were distributed among the relatives and laid upon the graves or heaped over the urns. On all these occasions offerings were made in the temples to the G.o.ds and at the tombs to the _manes_ of the dead, and the lamps were lighted in the tombs (--425), and at the tombs the relatives feasted together and offered food to their dead (--426).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 205. HADRIAN'S TOMB]