Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions Part 2

have been received into collections as ancient.

Among the sepulcral inscriptions arising out of the relations of life, those of husbands and wives are naturally the most common. The celebrated speech of Metellus Numidicus the Censor, when exhorting the Romans to marriage, does not indicate a high appreciation of the female s.e.x. "If,"

said he, "O Quirites, we could do without wives, we should all like to be free from the annoyance; but since nature has so arranged things that we can neither live comfortably with them nor at all without them, we should put up with a temporary inconvenience for the sake of a permanent benefit." Gellius, who reports the speech, naturally remarks that this was no very powerful recommendation of matrimony, and that he should rather have said that in general marriage had no troubles; that if they sometimes seem to occur, they were few and light and easy to be borne, and were thrown into the shade by greater pleasures and advantages; and that the troubles which did arise did not happen to all, nor by the fault of nature, but from the fault and injustice of husbands. Castricius, on the other hand, vindicated Metellus, and maintained that as Censor he was bound to tell the whole truth, known to himself and admitted by every one else.[91] On such a subject it is not fair to take the evidence of books, in which, in ancient times at least, only one side is heard; or of satirists, who are, one and all, caricaturists, and very generally ill-tempered men; or of poets, whose own lives were flagrantly licentious; nor to draw conclusions respecting the character of Roman women generally from a few notorious examples of vice in elevated stations. I believe that we may obtain a truer as well as a more favourable conception of the conjugal relation in the imperial times, from the sepulcral inscriptions.

They proceed from the middle cla.s.ses, who give its moral character to a community; they are very numerous, and I cannot but believe the testimony which they bear to the general happiness of the married state.

The few inscriptions on women which have come down to us from the times of the republic, show what were the practical, unostentatious, and home-keeping qualities which were prized in the Roman matron, yet not without those gifts of pleasant speech and graceful carriage which set off the more solid virtues of female character.

Hospes quod deico paullum est: asta ac pellige.

Heic est sepulcrum pulcrum pulcrai feminae.

Nomen parentes nominarunt Claudiam.

Suom mareitom corde dilexit souo.

Gnatos duo creavit: horunc alterum In terra linquit, alium sub terra locat.

Sermone lepido, tum autem incessu commodo, Domum servavit, lanam fecit. Dixi. Abei.[92]

The same qualities are predominant in an inscription of later date. HIC SITA EST AMYMONE MARCI OPTIMA ET PULCHERRIMA, LANIFICA, PIA, PUDICA, FRUGI, CASTA, DOMISEDA.[93] Intellectual accomplishments, however, were not overlooked. JULIae LUC. FILIae TYRANNIae VIXIT ANN. XX.M.VIII. QUae MORIBUS PARITER ET DISCIPLINA COETERIS FEMINIS EXEMPLO FUIT, AUTARCIUS NURUI. LAURENTIUS UCSORI.[94] The married life of the Romans appears to have been remarkably free from those domestic differences which Paley, according to a well-known anecdote, considered to be a useful corrective of its dulness. CONJUX INCOMPARABILIS, c.u.m QUA VIXI x.x.x ANNOS SINE QUERELA; SINE JURGIO; SINE DISSIDIO; SINE aeMULATIONE; SINE ULLA ANIMI LaeSIONE, are testimonies constantly occurring on the part of husbands to their wives. The collection of Fabretti contains several inscriptions, declaring that this harmony had continued during half a century of married life.[95] The monuments erected by wives to their husbands are less numerous, but they bear the same testimony to conjugal harmony. D.M. D.

JUNI PRIMIGENIO QUI VIXIT ANNIS x.x.xV JUNIA PALLAS FECIT, CONJUGI KARISSIMO ET PIENTISSIMO DE SE BENEMERENTI, c.u.m QUO VIXIT ANNIS XV MENSES VI DULCITER SINE QUERELA.[96] We find a husband recording on the tomb of his wife his vow never to contract a second marriage. TEMPIUS HERMEROS CONJUGI CARISSIMae FECIT CON (sic) QUA VIXIT ANNOS XVIII SINE QUERELA. CUJUS DESIDERIO JURATUS EST SE POST EAM UXOREM NON HABITURUM.[97] It is not an unfrequent sentiment, that the death of the wife was the very first cause of sorrow that she had given to her husband, as in the following example at Rome. T. FL. CAPITO CONJUGI CASTISSIMae PIISSIMae ET DE SE OPTIME MERITae, DE QUA NULLUM DOLOREM NISI ACERBISSIMae MORTIS EJUS ACCEPERAT.[98]

One inscription might seem to indicate a different feeling, a husband saying of his wife on her monument, CUJUS IN DIE MORTIS GRATIAS MAXIMAS EGI APUD DEOS ET APUD HOMINES; and the editor, Orelli, remarks upon it "mirum dicterium!"--a strange sarcasm. It would, indeed, be not only strange, but brutal, in the sense which he attributes to it, but it surely admits the more candid construction that the husband had seen his wife suffering long and was grateful for her release. It may be ill.u.s.trated by another. OMIDIA BASILISSA VIXIT ANNOS XXV. QUae POST LONGAS ET VARIAS INFIRMITATES HOMINIBUS EXEMPTA EST. MISERA VALE. MACEDO MARITUS.[99] Such too, was the import of the consolation which C. Publicius addresses to his parents.

Tempera jam genitor lacrimis, tuque, O optima mater, Desine jam flere: poenam non sentio mortis.

Poena fuit vita; requies mihi morte parata est.[100]

Death sometimes came speedily to blight the prospects of happiness. D. M.

L. ARULENUS SOSIMUS FECIT CLODIae CHARIDI SUae CONJUGI DULCISSIMae, QUae SI AD VITae METAM PERVENISSET, NON HOMINIBUS NEQUE DIS INVIDISSET; SET VIX SEc.u.m VIXIT DIES XV.[101] The following inscription beautifully expresses the wish that the harmony in which P. Manlius Surus and his wife had lived might be prolonged in the joint resting-place of their remains; UT CONCORS VIVORUM ANIMUS STEt.i.t, ITA CONCORS MORTUORUM CINIS HIC JACEAT.[102] It is sometimes recorded on the tombs of mothers by their husbands or their children, that they had fulfilled the duty which the philosopher Favorinus urged on the Roman matrons,[103] and Tansillo and Roscoe on the women of Italy and England, that of being nurse as well as mother. GRATIae ALEXANDRIae, INSIGNIS EXEMPLI AC PUDICITIae, QUae ETIAM FILIOS SUOS PROPRIIS UBERIBUS EDUCAVIT, PUDENS MARITUS. LICINIae PROCESSae, MATRI PIae NUTRICI DULCISSIMae, CRESCENS FECIT.[104]

We find traces, however, of the effects of the facility of divorce.

Northern superst.i.tion has represented a mother as disquieted in her grave by the ill-usage of her children, and coming in nightly visions to terrify their stepmother into better treatment of them; but a Roman mother lived to record on the tomb of her son that he had been poisoned by his stepmother. D. M. L. HOSTILI TER SILVANI ANN. XXIV. M. II. D. XV. MATER FILIO PIISSIMO. MISERA ET IN LUCTU aeTERNALI BENEFICIO (VENEFICIO) NOVERCae.[105] Another conjugal tribute discloses a singular result of the same state of the law. T. Sentius Januarius and L. Terentius Trophimus jointly raise a memorial to Hostilia Capriola.[106] She must have been married to the one after having been divorced from the other; and as they agree in calling her CONJUGI BENE MERENTI, we must suppose the first marriage to have been dissolved without criminality on her part. Such an a.s.sociation would seem strange, even in those continental countries, where a divorced wife may sit at table between her first and second husband.

I will conclude this subject of the "affectus conjugum" by the quotation of a beautiful inscription, said to have been found on a monument at Rome, which is figured in Gruter.[107] It purports to be a dialogue between Atimetus, a freedman of Tiberius Caesar, and his deceased wife (collibertae et contubernali) Claudia h.o.m.onoea, the husband professing his desire to die and rejoin his wife; the wife expressing her hope, that what had been taken from her own life might be added to his. It has not escaped suspicion, though the majority of critics admit its genuineness. If genuine, it proceeds from the golden age of Latin literature; if the work of a scholar of the sixteenth century, it will still have an interest for the reader of taste.

Tu qui secura procedis mente parumper Siste gradum quaeso, verbaque pauca lege.

h.o.m.oNOEA.

Illa ego quae claris fueram praelata puellis Hoc h.o.m.onoea brevi condita sum tumulo.

Cui formam Paphie, Charites tribuere decorem; Quam Pallas cunctis artibus erudiit.

Nondum bis denos aetas mea viderat annos: Injecere ma.n.u.s invida fata mihi.

Nec pro me queror hoc, morte est mihi tristior ipsa Moeror Atimeti conjugis ille mei.

ATIMETUS.

Si pensare animas sinerent crudelia fata Et posset redimi morte aliena salus, Quantulac.u.mque meae debentur tempora vitae Pensarem pro te, cara h.o.m.onoea libens.

At nunc, quod possum, fugiam lucemque deosque Ut te matura per Styga morte sequar.

h.o.m.oNOEA.

Parce tuam conjux, fletu qua.s.sare juventam, Fataque moerendo sollicitare mea.

Nil prosunt lacrimae, nec possunt fata moveri: Viximus: hic omnes exitus unus habet.

Parce: ita non unquam similem experiare dolorem, Et faveant votis numina cuncta tuis.

Quodque mihi eripuit more immatura juventae Id tibi victuro proroget ulterius.

We know from the Latin poets that favourite animals were honoured by a monument ("Lusciniae tumulum si Thelesina dedit," Martial, 7, 86). The following inscription on a pet greyhound is found in the "Anthologia:"--

Docta per incertas audax discurrere silvas Collibus hirsutas atque agitare feras; Non gravibus vinclis unquam consueta teneri, Verbera nec niveo corpore saeva pati.

Molli namque sinu domini dominaeque jacebam, Et noram in strato la.s.sa cubare toro.

Et plus quam licuit muto canis ore loquebar; Nulli latratus pertimuere meos.[108]

D. M. is even prefixed to the epitaph on a Barbary mare (equa Gaetulica), named Speudusa ([Greek: speudousa]), who is declared to be fleet as the wind, "flabris compar." After the example of the Greeks, the Romans gave significant names to their race and chariot horses, several of which are preserved on the monument of Diodes, the driver of the Red Faction.[109]

There still remains the most interesting of all the subjects of inquiry which the Roman sepulcral inscriptions suggest, what was the state of religious feeling and belief among the people with whom they originated?

The natural affections, springing from sources which exist in every human breast, will express themselves with a certain similarity in all ages and countries. But there is a wide difference in the religious faith and sentiment with which the bereavements of life are met, and which find their record on the funeral monument. One remarkable contrast strikes us on comparing ancient with modern, Heathen with Christian inscriptions--the entire absence in the former of anything like resignation to the will of a superior Power, or any acknowledgment of a benevolent purpose in a painful dispensation. If the G.o.ds are alluded to it is in the way of complaint.

Ma.n.u.s LEBO (levo) CONTRA DEUM QUI ME INNOCENTEM SUSTULIT,[110] is a bold defiance of Providence. Cornelius Victor, who died at the age of thirty-one, complains that his virtues had not secured him a longer life.

VIXI SEMPER BENE UT VOLUI. NEMINEM LaeSI. CUR MORTUUS SIM NESCIO;[111]

while Marsilia Stabilis regrets that her eminent piety could not purchase exemption from the common destiny.

Si pietate aliquam redimi fatale fuisset, Marsilia Stabilis prima redemta forem.[112]

If such a feeling of impatience and complaint could be allowed, we might sympathize with T. Claudius Hermes, who inscribes a monument, MERULae UXORI BENE DE SE MERENTI ET CAMPILIO ALBUNO INFANTI DULCISSIMO QUOS DII IRATI UNO DIE aeTERNO SOMNO DEDERUNT.[113] Antinous and Panthea, who placed on the tomb of their infant daughter Isiatis the sentiment, QUAM DI AMAVERUNT HAC MORITUR INFAS, appear from their names to have been Greeks, and to have copied the Greek poet Menander.[114]

Nor does the deceased speak from the tomb with any words of consolation to those who are left behind, except that cold comfort, the "solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris." C. Gavius Primigenius, who died at the age of seven, thus addresses his mother:--

Desine jam mater lacrimis renovare querelas Namque dolor talis non tibi contigit uni.[115]

The possibility that longer life might have been vicious or unhappy is urged as a motive to abstain from grief, as in the inscription on Lucia Toreuma, who died at the age of nineteen:--

Exiguo, vitae s.p.a.cio feliciter acto Effugi crimen longa senecta tuum.[116]

There would be no difficulty in deciding between the two following inscriptions, in each of which a deceased mother addresses her surviving husband and children, which of them proceeded from a Heathen and which from a Christian source:--

Care marite mihi, dulcissima nata valete, Et memores nostris semper date justa sepulcris.[117]

Parcite vos lacrimis dulces c.u.m conjuge natae Viventemque Deo credits flere nefas.[118]

Nor are inscriptions wanting which declare the vanity of human wishes, and the fallaciousness of human hopes;--

Decipimur votis et tempore fallimur, et mors Deridet curas; anxia vita nihil,

is a distich which frequently occurs.[119] VIVE LaeTUS QUIQUE (quicunque) VIVIS. VITA PARVUM MUNUS EST MOX EXORTA EST SENSIM VIGESCIT DEINDE SENSIM DEFICIT, expresses a similar sentiment. The sentiment on the tomb of Vettius Hermes, MATER GENUIT ME, MATER RECEPIT, is not very different from that of Scripture, "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return." The inscription, C. POMPEIUS EUPHROSYNUS ET JUNIA GEMELLA UXOR EJUS EX OMNIBUS BONIS SUIS HOC SIBI SUMPSERUNT, that the grave in which they lay was all they had retained of their possessions, reminds us of the pa.s.sage, "We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can take nothing out."

These and similar sentiments express truths forced everywhere on man's notice, and which may be looked for in many countries, and under many religions. The inquiry, to which we might especially expect that the sepulcral inscriptions would furnish a full reply, is, what was the belief of the Romans, in the ages to which these memorials belong, respecting the condition of man after death. The almost universal commencement of epitaphs with Diis Manibus, or the abbreviation D. M., might seem to indicate an universal belief in the continued existence of the spiritual part of his nature. For "the divine Manes" were the disembodied spirits of men, waiting, according to those who believed in the transmigration of souls, for reunion with another body; or, according to a more popular conception, lingering around the tomb, acutely sensitive to any violation or neglect, and gratified by the tokens of remembrance and affection; or in a still different view, the presiding deities of the world of spirits exercising a control over its inhabitants. Such must have been the conception of Furia Spes, when in the inscription upon her husband's tomb she addresses a prayer to the Manes, that she might be permitted to see him in her nightly dreams. PETO VOS MANES SANCTISSIMae, COMMENDATUM HABEATIS MEUM CONJUGEM ET VELITIS HUIC INDULGENTISSIMI ESSE, HORIS NOCTURNIS UT EUM VIDEAM. ET ETIAM ME FATO SUO ADDERE VELIT, UT ET EGO DULCIUS ET CELERIUS APUD EUM PERVENIRE POSSIM.[120] How far the formulary mention of the Dii Manes on sepulcres may be taken as a proof of the continued existence of the belief in which it undoubtedly originated is a question very difficult to decide. Pliny, while he ridicules the superst.i.tion, acknowledges the existence of the belief.[121] Juvenal, on the contrary, declares that the belief in the Manes did not extend beyond the nursery:--

Esse aliquid Manes et subterranea regna---- Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum aere lavantur.

Sat. 2, 149.

I should receive with caution the testimony of a poetical censor of his age, who naturally fixes his eye on those circ.u.mstances only which justify his fierce indignation. Nor do I draw any inference unfavourable to the belief in a future existence from such expressions as "domus aeterna,"

"quies aeterna," and others of the same kind. They are found on Christian sepulcres, and may have a reference to the body, which it was hoped might never be disturbed in its peaceful resting-place. It is natural also to regard the grave as a place of repose from the toils, the pains, and the troubles of life, without believing it to be the "be-all and the end-all"