Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

FUNUS.

188

FUNTJS.

person of consequence. Funerals were usually
called ftmera justa or exsequiae; the latter
term was generally applied to the funeral
procession (pompa funebris). There were
two kinds of funerals, public and private;
of which the former was called fiinits publicum
or indictivum, because the people were in-
vited to it by a herald ; the latter funus taci-
turn, translatitium, or plebeium. A person
appears to have usually left a certain sum of
money in his will to pay the expenses of his
funeral; but if he did not do so, nor appoint
any one to bury him, this duty devolved upon
the persons to whom the property was left,
and if he died without a will, upon his rela-
tions, according to their order of succession
to the property. The expenses of the funeral
were in such cases decided by an arbiter,
according to the property and rank of the
deceased, whence arbitria is used to signify
the funeral expenses.-—The following descrip-
tion of the mode in which a funeral was con-
ducted only applies strictly to the funerals of
the great; the same pomp and ceremony
could not of course be observed in the case of
persons in ordinary circumstances. 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 (effere-
batur) on the eighth day after the death.
The order of the funeral procession was regu-
lated by a person called designator or dominus
funeris, who was attended by lictors dressed
in black. It was headed by musicians of
various kinds (cornicincs, siticines), who
played mournful strains, and next came
mourning women, called praeficae, who were
hired to lament and sing the funeral song
(tiaenia or lessus) in praise of the deceased.
These were sometimes followed by players
and buffoons (scurrae, histriones), of whom
one, called archimimus, represented the cha-
racter 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 some-
times liberated all his slaves, in his will, in
order to add to the pomp of his funeral. Be-
fore the corpse the images of the deceased
and of his ancestors were carried, and also
the crowns or military rewards which he had
gained. The corpse was carried on a couch
(lectica), to which the name of fcretrum or
capulum was usually given ; but the bodies
of poor citizens and of slaves were carried on
a common kind of bier or coffin, called sanda-
pila. The sandapila was carried by bearers,
called vespae or vespillones, because they

carried out the corpses in the evening (ves-
pertino tempore). The couches on which the
corpses of the rich were carried were some-
times made of ivory, and covered with gold
and purple. They were often carried on the
shoulders of the nearest relations of th'
deceased, and sometimes on those of his
freed-men. Julius Caesar was carried by the
magistrates, and Augustus by the senators.
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, con-
trary to the ordinary practice of both. They
often uttered loud lamentations, and the wo-
men 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.
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. Burn-
ing, however, does not appear to have become
general till the later times of the republic.
Marina was buried, and Sulla was the first of
the Cornelian gens whose body was burned.
Under the empire burning was almost uni-
versally practised, but was gradually discon-
tinued as Christianity spread, so that it had
fallen into disuse in the fourth century. Per-
sons struck by lightning were not burnt, but
buried on the spot, which was called Biden-
tal, and was considered sacred. [Bidextal.]
Children also, who had not cut their teeth,
were not burnt, hut buried in a place called
Suggrundarium. Those who were buried were
placed in a coffin (area or loculus), which
was frequently made of stone, and sometimes
of the Assian stone, which came from Assos
in Troas, and which consumed all the body,
with the exception of the teeth, in 40 days,
whence it was called sarcophagus. This name
was in course of time applied to any kind of
coffin or tomb. The corpse was burnt on a
pile of wood (pyra or rogus). This pile was
built in the form of an altar, with four equal
sides, whence we find it called ara sepulcri
and funeris ara. The sides of the pile were,