DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0141
chap, i.] MODES OF SEPULTURE. 39
hare put it out of the reach of the community. Zoega (de Obel. IV.,
p. 270, et seq.) is of opinion that cremation was adopted for convenience
sake, because the burnt ashes occupied less room, were less subject to
putrefaction, and especially, were more easily transported, and quotes
Homer (II. VII. 334) in corroboration of his opinion. Philosophic
notions of purification or of resolving the frame into its original element,
may have had to do with the practice of burning. Both methods seem
to have been practised coevally. (See Becker's Charicles. Excurs. sc. IX.,
and the authorities he cites.) Cinerary urns, however, are rarely found in
the Greek tombs of Magna Graecia or Sicily. De Jorio, a practised exca.
vator, says burial among the Greeks was to burning as ten to one—
among the Romans as one to ten (Metodo per frugare i Sepolcri, p. 28,
cf. Serradifalco, Ant. di Sic, IV. 197).
The practice of the Romans also in the earliest times was to bury, not
burn their dead, (Plin. Nat. His. VII. 55), the latter mode having been
adopted only when it was found that in protracted wars the dead were
disinterred. Yet burning seems also to have been in vogue in the time
of Numa, who, as he wished to be interred, was obliged to forbid his
body to be burned, (Plut. Numa). Perhaps the latter custom had refer-
ence only to great men. Ovid represents the body of Remus as burnt,
(Past. IV. 853-6). In the early times of the Republic, interment was
the general mode ; burning, however, seems to have gradually come into
use—the Twelve Tables speak of both (Cic. de Leg. II. 23)—yet certain
families long adhered to the more ancient mode, the Cornelian gens for
instance, the first member of which that was burnt was Sylla the Dictator,
who, having dishonoured the corpse of Marius, feared retaliation on his
own remains (Plin. 1. c. Cic. de Leg. II. 22). Burning, at first confined
to heroes, or the wealthy, became general under the Empire, but
at length fell out of fashion, and was principally applied to the corpses
of freedmen and slaves, and in the fourth century after Christ was
wholly superseded by burial. Macrob. Sat. VII. 7.
With the Etruscans it is difficult to pronounce whether inhumation or
adustion was the earlier, as instances of both together are found in
tombs of very remote antiquity. With them, as with the Greeks and
Romans, in later periods of their history, both methods seem to have been
adopted contemporaneously. In certain sites, however, one or the other
mode was the more prevalent. The antiquity of cremation is confirmed
by archaeological researches—by the cinerary hut-urns of Albano,
which both analogy, and the position in which they were found,
indicate to be of very ancient date—and by the very archaic character
of some of the " ash-chests " and pottery found in Etruscan tombs.
hare put it out of the reach of the community. Zoega (de Obel. IV.,
p. 270, et seq.) is of opinion that cremation was adopted for convenience
sake, because the burnt ashes occupied less room, were less subject to
putrefaction, and especially, were more easily transported, and quotes
Homer (II. VII. 334) in corroboration of his opinion. Philosophic
notions of purification or of resolving the frame into its original element,
may have had to do with the practice of burning. Both methods seem
to have been practised coevally. (See Becker's Charicles. Excurs. sc. IX.,
and the authorities he cites.) Cinerary urns, however, are rarely found in
the Greek tombs of Magna Graecia or Sicily. De Jorio, a practised exca.
vator, says burial among the Greeks was to burning as ten to one—
among the Romans as one to ten (Metodo per frugare i Sepolcri, p. 28,
cf. Serradifalco, Ant. di Sic, IV. 197).
The practice of the Romans also in the earliest times was to bury, not
burn their dead, (Plin. Nat. His. VII. 55), the latter mode having been
adopted only when it was found that in protracted wars the dead were
disinterred. Yet burning seems also to have been in vogue in the time
of Numa, who, as he wished to be interred, was obliged to forbid his
body to be burned, (Plut. Numa). Perhaps the latter custom had refer-
ence only to great men. Ovid represents the body of Remus as burnt,
(Past. IV. 853-6). In the early times of the Republic, interment was
the general mode ; burning, however, seems to have gradually come into
use—the Twelve Tables speak of both (Cic. de Leg. II. 23)—yet certain
families long adhered to the more ancient mode, the Cornelian gens for
instance, the first member of which that was burnt was Sylla the Dictator,
who, having dishonoured the corpse of Marius, feared retaliation on his
own remains (Plin. 1. c. Cic. de Leg. II. 22). Burning, at first confined
to heroes, or the wealthy, became general under the Empire, but
at length fell out of fashion, and was principally applied to the corpses
of freedmen and slaves, and in the fourth century after Christ was
wholly superseded by burial. Macrob. Sat. VII. 7.
With the Etruscans it is difficult to pronounce whether inhumation or
adustion was the earlier, as instances of both together are found in
tombs of very remote antiquity. With them, as with the Greeks and
Romans, in later periods of their history, both methods seem to have been
adopted contemporaneously. In certain sites, however, one or the other
mode was the more prevalent. The antiquity of cremation is confirmed
by archaeological researches—by the cinerary hut-urns of Albano,
which both analogy, and the position in which they were found,
indicate to be of very ancient date—and by the very archaic character
of some of the " ash-chests " and pottery found in Etruscan tombs.