Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions: Their Relation to Archæology, Language, and ReligionKenrick, John
Religion
Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions: Their Relation to Archæology, Language, and Religion
Kenrick, John
Epitaphs -- Rome; Inscriptions, Latin
Another tribute of honour for which we find testators making provision is
the lighting a lamp in the monument, or feeding it with oil. All who have
explored the remains of Roman antiquities are aware how frequently lamps
are found in connection with sepulcral monuments. The following
inscription invites passers-by to perform this service:[33]--
Quisquis huic tumulo posuit ardente lucernam
Illius cineres aurea terra tegat.
In order that these rites might be duly performed, the monument carefully
secures the right "_puteum adeundi, hauriendi, coronandi, sacrificandi,
ligna sumendi, mortuos mortuasve inferendi_;" as well as of "_itus, actus,
aditus, introitus, ambitus_." Law delighted then, as now, in exhaustive
enumerations. To secure the perpetual celebration of these funeral honours
was one object for which the alienation of the ground was so strictly
forbidden. Titus Ælius, a freedman of Augustus, leaves the monument which
he and his wife had erected, to his freedmen, freedwomen, and their
descendants, ITA UT NE DE NOMINE SUO AUT FAMILIA EXEAT; UT POSSIT MEMORIÆ
SUÆ QUAM DIUTISSIME SACRIFICARI.[34] To these annual commemorative
offerings allusion is made in a poetical inscription by a husband to his
wife, snatched away in youth.[35]
Lac tibi sit Cybeles, sint et rosa grata Diones,
Et flores grati Nymphis et lilia serta.
Sintque precor, meritæ qui nostra parent tibi dona
Annua, et hic manes placida tibi nocte quiescant,
Et super in nido Marathonia cantet aëdon.
It is not common to find in Roman sepulcral inscriptions specific mention
of the cause of death. A father thus records his son's early death by the
falling in of a well:[36]--
Parva sub hoc titulo Festi sunt ossa Papiri
Quæ moerens fato condidit ipse pater.
Qui si vixisset domini jam nomina ferret.
Hunc casus putei detulit ad cineres.[37]
The following inscription records the death of a male and female slave,
crushed by a crowd in the Capitol, who had, perhaps, come together to see
British captives led in chains, in a triumphal procession:[38]--
Ummidiæ Manes tumulus tegit iste simulque
Primigeni vernæ, quos tulit una dies.
Nam Capitolinæ compressi examine turbæ
Supremum fati competiere diem.
Ælius Proculinus, on the tomb of his wife, bestows an imprecation on those
who had shortened her life by magic incantations. CARMINIBUS DEFIXA JACUIT
PER TEMPORA MUTA, UT EJUS SPIRITUS, VI EXTORQUERETUR QUAM NATURÆ
REDDERETUR. CUJUS ADMISSI VEL MANES VEL DI COELESTES ERUNT SCELERIS
VINDICES.[39]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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