Funerary rite of the Roman religion

The membership of the social class conditions the ostentation of the funerary rites Romains. The Romans, very superstitious and religious thought that a precise course of the funeral was essential with obtaining a life after death. They were thus very fastidious on the execution of the funerary rites. The rich person were made, in theory, incinerate, while the Romans poorer as the slaves could be thrown in common graves, without ceremony. It is in addition current that certain men, whose emperors through the worship Impérial, were the subject of a worship after their death.

History of the rites During the protohistoric time of Rome, the Inhumation was more current than the Incinération. However, the burial was generally abandoned towards the end of fifth century BC, following the creation of the fields of incineration, the ustrina . The bustum indicated to rough-hew it contained in the funerary enclosure.

According to Tite-Live, starting from 390 av. J. - C., the Roman Femmes have right like the men to the funeral praise at the time of their funeral. Indeed, the Roman women while having agreed to offer their jewels to finance the ransom required by the Gallic, at the time of the first Sac of Rome would have acquired this right.

Under the Empire, the rites also changed with the adoption of the Eastern worships as the worship of Isis which promised another life after death. Starting from the middle of the 3rd century, the burial became more and more popular with the detriment of the incineration. The practice of the incineration, that the Jewish and the Christian rejected for theological reasons, is however not extinct before the 5th century.

Course of the rites

The social status was a big factor in the course and the ostentation of the Roman funerary rites. One exposed the body to the public before incinerating it, according to one duration which depended on the position on late in the company. The Patricien S profited from an exposure being able to last several days, inviting the Romans at one period of mourning and to testify their regards with the family. The plebeian were often incinerated the shortly after their death.

The majority of the funerary rites of the plebs were done in the family circle. One closed the eyes of the late one, then his/her son, or the family member nearest, embraced it on the mouth to collect his last sigh. One withdrew the rings of late then one called it dead with high voice, three times by intervals, it was the conclamare suos . The body then was washed, deposited on a funerary bed ( lectus funebris ) decorated flower in the atrium . A coin was placed in its mouth. This coin was a payment with Charon, which transports out of vat deaths through the rivers of the hells. Until the Law of the twelve tables, a small furnace bridge ( will acerra ) on which one burns a perfume is posed close to the bed.

The body was to leave the feet in first. The Roman state could issue a public mourning for the characters important.

After the exposure, the night preferably to avoid the large public gatherings and to discourage the overflows of crowd which could degenerate for the important men, the funerary procession is led in the Nécropole , city of death, apart from the city of the alive ones, where waits to rough-hew it. The following of the procession sings the Nennie S, the men getting dressed colors, all were to get dressed with wools, to neglect to be washed, or to change clothing, the heads of wire are veiled, the décoiffés hair of the women, the nails are not cut. This place was sanctified beforehand by a priest who blessed it with water and a branch of bay-tree or olive-tree. The richest families pay musicians to lead the procession. The parents could also carry wax masks to the effigy of other members deceased of family. One pronounced a Panégyrique during the consumption of roughing-hew and one threw offerings: expensive food, perfume, and objects with the late one. When the hearth dies out, a member of family (usually the mother or the wife of late) damping ashes with wine then lava the bones with perfume, and places these vestiges a ballot box cinéraire ( olla ), fabric a bag, a trunk of gold, marble, pottery, glass, or metal… The site is marked by a stone or a piece of wood.

The family members who were old of more than six years were to carry mourning during one year whole. Children of less than six years for one month, a husband for ten months and parents of blood for eight month.

The Plebs

The procession was led by an undertaker's assistant ( vespillones ) who places the corpse on a stretcher ( sandapila ). The ritual ones are carried out on the tomb. The family deposits there offerings of foods and drinks. Then, “a funeral lunch” takes place on the site to even rough-hew. After the " Last nine days of douleur" , the family carries out the novendiale sacrificium , then of return to the house another meal ( cena novendialis ) consumes.

Richest

The rich person were entitled to more refined burials. In addition to the period of longer exposure, the rites were accompanied by musicians, mimes, the whining ones, dancers. The family members who had followed a career in the magistrature, got dressed in official behavior and followed by tank with their public horses. One exhibe also the imagines , portrait of the ancestors proving the seniority of the family. The procession led by a dissignator assisted of a accensus leading Lictor S vêtus of black, moved house with the forum by the main streets of the city. With the forum, one maintained the stretcher or reads of parade of the late right and one pronounced the laudatio funebris (funeral praise). Polybe said that the Roman burial was one in the outstanding ways of which the Romans informed their children: this outstanding ceremony indeed perpetuated a genealogical and civic memory strong, ensured the perenniality of the values of the Roman leading class and encouraged young people of the big families to want to compete with the virtues of their elder, to keep in mind their example. The incinerations could take place in private fields, close to private tombs.

Funeral of the Roman Emperors and their family

Dynastic mourning sets up under the Roman Empire (of -27 with 476): the death of a family member imperial is always an event in Rome. The funeral is public and represents one moment of unanimitas around the prince. The procession is formed of the senators and the magistrates. If the emperor had ordered armies, its soldiers followed it, weapons turned towards the ground. The slaves carried the skins taken to the enemies, the standards and the triumphal crowns. The players of flute, the whining ones ( praeficae ), of the actors carrying the masks of the ancestors and a buffoon imitating the late one followed. Before the incineration, one separated part of the body (a finger in general) which one buried .

The Apothéose is the most honorary rite of the Roman religion: it makes of the emperor a god. It is granted or refused by the Roman Senate. The first would be that of Romulus, mysteriously disappeared over Field-of-March, in Rome.

Conversely, the Damnatio memoriae , which is a defamatory judgment, is decided by the Senate for the bad emperors: it was the case for Néron and Domitien in particular.

The funeral was followed from one period nine days of mourning public. The end of this period was marked by funeral plays, banquets or of the Sacrifice S. the close relations could as for them keep mourning several months during which they abstained from any festival and carried the dark Toge.

Particular funeral

Jules César:

Assassinated in 44 av. J. - C., Jules César had seditious funeral: its body was transported by crowd on the forum of Rome where it was incinerated. One then built on this site a column, then a temple with the first man divinized in Rome. Several emperors had to take edicts to limit violences during certain funeral (Auguste, Tibère).

popular and assassinated Germanicus

General, its remainders were placed in the tomb of Auguste. Throughout the funerary procession was the people equipped with black and the knights in trabée. The soldiers out of weapons, the magistrates and the Roman people arranged by tribe was present to pay homage to him over Field-of-March, in the light of thousands of torches.

Bent

In 69, Galba is assassinated and decapitated, its head walked in Rome on a spade.

Favorite Antinoüs

of the emperor Hadrian 2nd century, this last made it raise with the row of god and made build temples and statues in the empire in its honor.

Places of burial

The Ustrinia are the public grounds which, since the law of the twelve table, were used to incinerate deaths. In theory they contained a series of funerary steles and a Columbarium . These cemeteries are on the way Romans outside the cities. It is interdict to bury no matter whom within the limits of city since the Loi of the Twelve Tables. The city having to remain pure. Prètres are charged to sanctify the places of incineration.

The Columbaria were large underground rooms where the incinerated remainders were placed in small niches located the walls, which were decorated by commemorative plaques or sculptures with the effigy with the mort.
The Columbaria were an inexpensive manner to guarantee this transition, and the collegiums made it possible all the classes of the company to reach beyond. One could also deposit there some offerings for the life of late in beyond (rings, parts, sandals,…). Some emperors provided funeral allowances to poorest so that those obtain a place in these Columbaria .

The Cimetière of Pompéi resembles a modern cemetery enough. Those were composed of tumulus out of plaster or stucco often covered with painting with red flowers or violets. Certain tombs could be equipped with pipe in tile which allowed the offering of drinking death, at the time of the funerary meal which proceeded after the burial. The tumulus could contain either a ballot box, or the body.

The buried bodies were protected by marble, metal a more or less expensive coffin, stone where, for poorest, of wood. The embalming of the bodies with gypsum was also a current practice.

Tombs

The Etruscans, for richest all at least, built refined tombs in which they were made bury, in couple, with stone coffins where they were represented lengthened and slackened. The rich Romans also built refined and monumental tombs (sometimes curiously formed, for example a pyramid, or a cylinder, like that of Caecilii Metelli). The Mausoleum of Auguste and the Mausolée of Hadrian are good examples of monumental tombs Roman Emperors.

The cemeteries were on the roads apart from the cities. The Scipiones, one of the most important families and most powerful of Rome, maintained their tombs of family on the Appienne Way for several centuries.

Tomb stones

Many tomb stones were found. The size of the stone and its decorations depend on the importance of late, the time and the place of the monument. They can contain a name, a statute, the major events of the life of late, the list of the offices which the late one if he were magistrate, of the dedications of family members held, a sculpture the representative, etc Most of the time, they are information strictly speaking , but for some stones the text is poetic. These stones seldom represent death in a direct way. Their study raises of the Latin epigraphy.

The ballot boxes huts

In the Latium and the south of the Étrurie, before the Foundation of Rome, one used ballot box-huts in ground-cooked to receive ashes of the corpses after the cremation. It were round, elliptic and sometimes rectangular, resembling the dwellings of the alive ones. They had a door and some times of the shutters. The roof was out of thatch. At the time traditional, the Romans venerated similar terra cotta: two specimens found on the Palatine and the Capitole would represent the houses of Romulus and Faustulus.

The organization of the funerary rites

Collegium

Many Romans belonged to the funeral companies called collegium funeraticia , to ensure the rites. They discharged monthly rights which were used to cover the cost of the burials of their members. The members of the collegium had the guarantee to obtain a place in the columbarium .

Libitinarii

The Libitinarii are charged to organize the funeral rites; they are dependant on the temple of Libitina. The slave S Pollinctores , which pertaining to Libitinarii, wash the body of the corpse, oignent it of oil and perfumes and sing songs, recite poems and of the incantations. The temple of Libitina perceived the money of the service and provided in return the accessories and the services necessary. The Libitinarii also provided, if necessary, the whining professional ones, of the danceurs, the musicians and the masks.

Other ritual

A work describes these rites and their origins: the Records of Ovide (even if only the books which relate to January to June reached us). All the year is remembered by these rites. The festivals Parentalia , Feralia , dead Lemuria … It are honoured by depositing offerings on its tomb, by lighting lamps in colombarium or while going to the temples. They will be accomplished during all the life of the survivors.

The Unguentaria are bottles of tear, they were deposited with the bones. Paintings on the tumulus funerary could also represent objects of veneration, to which a magic capacity or Apotropaïque was sometimes allotted.

Religious beliefs

The Romans also used a domestic temple, a Lariarum on which they deposited offerings. The spirits of the ancestors, the lares , were supposed to protect the household. The Au-delà Romain is treated in the Roman Mythologie. Avernus and Pluton reigns on the world of the hells. Other divinities are related to death, contrary to the Lémure S, phantoms which could harm to them. One can say that the Roman monks requested their death in a way different from the Christians who request for their deaths.

Cerberus
Dis Lord's Prayer
Egestes
Fames
Inferi Dii
Larenta
Letum
Mors
Proserpine
lares
Aera Cleaned (hell)
Averna (death)
Dea Tacita (death)
Furina (darkness)
Libitina (corpses)
Mânes, Lémure S (spirit)
Naenia (burial)
Tarpeia (death and disease)
Viduus (death separation spirit)

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