The Project Gutenberg eBook ofRoman Sepulchral InscriptionsThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Roman Sepulchral InscriptionsAuthor: John KenrickRelease date: June 1, 2012 [eBook #39894]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book wasproduced from scanned images of public domain materialfrom the Google Print project.)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMAN SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Roman Sepulchral InscriptionsAuthor: John KenrickRelease date: June 1, 2012 [eBook #39894]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book wasproduced from scanned images of public domain materialfrom the Google Print project.)
Title: Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions
Author: John Kenrick
Author: John Kenrick
Release date: June 1, 2012 [eBook #39894]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book wasproduced from scanned images of public domain materialfrom the Google Print project.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMAN SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS ***
LONDON: PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER,ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET.
ROMANSEPULCRAL INSCRIPTIONS:
THEIR RELATION TOARCHÆOLOGY, LANGUAGE, AND RELIGION.
DM SIMPLICIAE FLORENTINEANIME INNOCENTISSIMEQVE VIXIT MENSES DECEMFELICIVS SIMPLEX PATER FECITLEC VI V
DM SIMPLICIAE FLORENTINEANIME INNOCENTISSIMEQVE VIXIT MENSES DECEMFELICIVS SIMPLEX PATER FECITLEC VI V
FROM A SARCOPHAGUS IN THE YORK MUSEUM.
BYJOHN KENRICK, M.A., F.S.A.
LONDON.JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE.YORK:R. SUNTER, STONEGATE; H. SOTHERAN, CONEY STREET.M.DCCC.LVIII.
This little work originated in two papers, read before the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. They were designed to direct the attention of the members to the monuments preserved in their own Museum, and at the same time to show how the labours of the antiquary connect themselves with the history of manners, institutions, and opinions. The subject, I believe, has not been specially treated of in this country before, and as the remains of antiquity are now studied with more enlarged views than in a former age, it may have an interest for a wider circle than that to which the original papers were addressed.J. K.
This little work originated in two papers, read before the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. They were designed to direct the attention of the members to the monuments preserved in their own Museum, and at the same time to show how the labours of the antiquary connect themselves with the history of manners, institutions, and opinions. The subject, I believe, has not been specially treated of in this country before, and as the remains of antiquity are now studied with more enlarged views than in a former age, it may have an interest for a wider circle than that to which the original papers were addressed.
J. K.
CONTENTS.
The memorials of the dead hold a remarkable place among the materials of history. The very existence of nations is in many cases attested only by their sepulcral monuments, which serve to trace the course of their migrations, and yield us a scanty knowledge of their usages, and of the state of civilization among them. Where the art of writing has been unknown, this knowledge must, indeed, be vague and inferential; we may gather the race from the form of the skull, the rank or occupation from the contents of the grave; but we learn nothing of the individual character or social relations of its tenant; he is only one of the countless multitude who
Even among nations who have possessed the art of writing, and used it profusely for sepulcralpurposes, we may be disappointed in the hope of gaining any idea of individual character from inscriptions on the dead. From the hieroglyphics with which the Egyptian mummies and funeral tablets are covered we seldom learn more than the state and function of the deceased. The Greek inscriptions are more communicative, but their ἐπιγράμματα ἐπιτύμβια, of which so large a number are preserved in the Anthology, are rather poetical exercises than the expression of genuine, personal sentiment; and those which have come down to us in brass or marble are brief and meagre.
Roman sepulcral monuments of the republican times are rare; but those of the family of Scipio,[1]the earliest with which we are acquainted, exhibit a character entirely different from the Greek. They at once display the genius of the people, and give a picture of strong individuality. The following Saturnian verses are inscribed on the tomb of Publius Scipio, the son of the great Africanus.
Quei apicem, insigne Dialis Flaminis, gesisteiMors perfecit tua ut tibi essent omnia brevia,Honos, fama virtusque, gloria atque ingenium.Quibus sei in longa licuisset tibi utier vitaFacile facteis superasses gloriam majorum.Quare lubens te in gremium, Scipio, recipitTerra, Publi, prognatum Publio, Corneli.
In the imperial times sepulcral inscriptions became very numerous, especially as cremation fell into disuse, and the sarcophagus took the place of the urn, which rarely exhibits any designation of the person whose ashes it contains. They have furnished the philologer, the archæologist, and the historian, with a multitude of materials for their respective branches of study. The site of Eburacum has supplied a considerable number of them, some of which have perished or been removed,[2]while others are contained in the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. With the exception of one, they are formal and jejune; yet the fact that the Society possesses so many may lead its members to take an interest in an attempt to illustrate the whole subject from the more ample treasures of other collections.
What has been said of the general brevity and dryness of our own inscriptions is true of those found in England generally. There are very few in the collections of Horsley and his successors, which are distinguished either by their execution or their style. For the most part they are a simplerecord of the age and status of the deceased, a large proportion being the tombs of military men. The number and character of sepulcral monuments are an index of the population and wealth of a district or country; their language, of the prevalence of the Roman dominion. Rome, of course, has furnished the largest number. The north of Italy, when it ceased to be Gallic, became entirely Roman; and its chief cities, Verona, Milan, Brescia, Padua, have proved more productive of Latin inscriptions than the south, where the Greek language was extensively used. The southern parts of Gaul early became a Roman province; and its cities are full of Roman antiquities, among which inscriptions bear a conspicuous part. Several classics of the Silver age—Seneca, Martial, Quinctilian, Silius Italicus—were born in the southern cities of Spain, and the Spanish inscriptions, though less important than might have been expected from this circumstance, bear testimony to the wide diffusion of the Latin language in that country. Northern Africa was occupied by the Romans, with a temporary interruption during the conquest of the Vandals, for eight centuries. Though the country people retained the old Punic language,[3]the Latin must have been in general use in the cities, for African bishops and writerswere the founders of Latin eloquence in the Christian Church. Since the French possession of Algeria the ancient sites of Roman colonies have been explored, and already a copious harvest of Latin inscriptions has been the result. But Britain was remote and poor, late occupied by the Romans and early abandoned. Even during its occupation they were rather garrisoned in the towns, which they built and fortified, than mingled with the conquered people. We need not wonder, therefore, that our inscriptions are chiefly military, or that when the Romans withdrew they left few traces of their occupancy in the language of Britain.
It was the all but universal practice in the ancient world to inter the bodies or ashes of the dead beyond the limits of the cities. Even in Egypt, where the practice of embalmment might have rendered it safe to retain them in the vicinity of the living, the cemeteries of the great cities were placed on the opposite side of the Nile. Lycurgus, indeed, is said to have ordered interments to be made within the limits of Sparta, with the view of producing familiarity with the aspect of death. The Athenians, on the contrary, devoted the most beautiful suburb of their city, the Ceramicus without the walls, to the interment of their dead, and the space beyond the walls of the Piræus appears to have been occupied with tombs.[4]If the Romans ever buriedwithin their houses, it must have been at a time when their territory did not extend beyond the walls of the city, for the prohibition of the Twelve Tables is precise;HOMINEM MORTUUM IN URBE NE SEPELITO, NEVE URITO. The principal roads at Rome seem to have been lined with sepulcres for a considerable distance, especially the Appian, the “Regina Viarum,” as it is termed by Statius.[5]Atticus was buried at the fifth milestone from the city on this road, Gallienus at the ninth.[6]No urn or sarcophagus has been found within the walls of Roman York, but the traces of interment begin immediately beyond the gates. On the southern side, which was not included in the fortifications of Eburacum, the ground near the river was occupied by suburban villas, whose site is indicated by the elaborate pavements which have been dug up; but at the Mount, half a mile from the river one of the principal cemeteries of the city began, extending along the road which led to Calcaria. Sepulcral remains have also been found near the other outlets from the city. While we acknowledge that in thus banishing the remains of the dead from the precincts of the living the ancients showed more wisdom than modern nations, we cannot but wonder that they should have allowed the disagreeable process ofburningthe dead to be carried on so near their habitations.The site of theustrinumat York has not been clearly ascertained; if at Clifton, where many urns have been found, it was at a moderate distance from the gate; but at Pompeii it was only about a furlong from the gate on the principal road, and at Aldborough close to the wall.[7]The Romans had, even in their smaller municipia, Boards of Health—such, at least, I take to be the meaning ofNovemvirandTriumvir Valetudinarius;[8]and it may seem extraordinary that they did not remove the ustrinum to a greater distance. Its effect could scarcely be neutralized, even by the profusion of odoriferous gums and oils which were employed at funerals.[9]Augustus forbade the burning of bodies within fifteen stadia of the city. The only one whose site has been ascertained in the neighbourhood of Rome is near the fifth milestone on the Appian Way.[10]The ustrinum at Litlington,[11]the only one of its kind, I believe, whose site has been ascertained in England, was a rectangular space enclosed by walls, and not in the vicinity ofany large town. Both here and at Aldborough the ustrinum was also a cemetery. The cemetery of Roman London was in Spital-fields. (Arch. 36, 206.)
The position of the Roman sepulcres along the great thoroughfares explains the frequent apostrophe from the tenant of the tomb to the traveller:SISTE VIATOR; TU QUI VIA FLAMINIA TRANSIS RESTA AC RELEGE; VIATORES SALVETE ET VALETE; forms which have sometimes been copied, not very appropriately, in churchyards and cemeteries. The traveller is frequently addressed with some moral reflexion;VIXI UT VIVIS, MORIERIS UT SUM MORTUUS; occasionally of rather an Epicurean character, as that of Prima Pompeia;FORTUNA SPONDET MULTA MULTIS, PRÆSTAT NEMINI, VIVE IN DIES ET HORAS, NAM PROPRIUM EST NIHIL[12]. The tenant of the tomb sometimes invites the passer-by to offer for him the customary prayer,SIT TIBI TERRA LEVIS (S.T.T.L.).
Prævenere diem vitæ crudelia fataEt raptam inferna me posuere rate.Hoc lecto elogio juvenis miserere jacentis,Et dic discedens, Sit tibi terra levis[13].
The traveller is called upon from the interior of the tomb to halt and refresh himself, and give a portion to the deceased in the form of a funeral libation;MISCE, BIBE, DA MIHI. Beingplaced beside public roads, monuments were liable to pollutions of various kinds, which the Manes deprecate, sometimes threatening vengeance on the offenders. One of the most frequent of these violators was the writer on the wall, to whom the side of a sepulcral monument offered a tempting field for the exercise of his vocation.SCRIPTOR PARCE HOC OPUSis not the address of an author to his critic, but of a husband to the wall-scribbler, entreating him not to disfigure the monument of his wife.[14]As a frequent purpose of these placards was to recommend candidates for office, success is promised, on condition that the monument should not be written upon.ITA CANDIDATUS FIAT HONORATUS TUUS, ET TU FELIX SCRIPTOR, SI HIC NON SCRIPSERIS. INSCRIPTOR ROGO TE UT TRANSEAS HOC MONUMENTUM. QOIUS CANDIDATI NOMEN INSCRIPTUM FUERIT, REPULSAM FERAT, NEQUE HONOREM ULLUM GERAT.[15]
In an early state of society there would be little danger that the site on which interments had taken place should be converted to ordinary purposes. The violation of a sepulcre was severely punished by the Roman law, and is deprecated on grounds of humanity in some inscriptions, threatened with divine vengeance in others. Fabius Augurinus offersthis wish for him who should spare the tomb of his wife and child;[16]SIC NUNQUAM DOLEAS ATQUE TRISTE SUSPIRES QUANTUM DOLORIS TITULUS ISTE TESTATUR. Another pleads,[17]
Sacratam cunctis sedem ne læde viator.Hanc tibi nascenti fata dedere domum.
Another[18]utters the awful imprecation,QUISQUIS HOC SUSTULERIT AUT LÆSERIT, ULTIMUS SUORUM MORIATUR. The act of dedication is often recorded on the tomb with the addition “Sub ascia,” and the figure of an adze or hatchet[19]. But Roman burial places had no legal sanctity, like that which our churchyards enjoy; they were taken from out the fields and gardens which bordered the highway, and the temptation was great on the part of the heir to re-annex the ground to his property. The inscriptions on Roman sepulcres indicate the care which those who caused them to be erected took, to prevent their being either alienated to other purposes, or taken possession of by others than those for whom they were designed. The area which the tomb and its appurtenances should occupy, is carefully defined;HIC LOCUS PATET IN FRONTEM PEDES XX.; IN AGRUM PEDES XXV.; occasionally we meet withmuch larger dimensions. If the ground had been granted by another for this purpose, the words of the grant were sometimes inscribed on the monument. The right of using the sepulcre for placing sarcophagi, or urns, is defined commonly by the words,SIBI SUISQUE FECIT; frequently permission is given for the interment of freedmen and freedwomen with their master. Sometimes leave is given to introduce into the columbarium a limited number ofollæ, or funeral urns,[20]or, on the other hand, an individual is prohibited by name from sharing or even approaching the sepulcre;EXCEPTO HERMETE LIBERTO QUEM VOLO PROPTER DELICTA SUA ADITUM, AMBITUM NEC ULLUM ACCESSUM HABEAT IN HOC MONUMENTO. In another inscription,SECUNDINA LIBERTA, IMPIA IN PATRONUM SUUM, is forbidden to be interred in his tomb.[21]The churlish declaration,IN HOC MONUMENTO SOCIUM HABEO NULLUMis a rare exception, and in general the sepulcral inscriptions give a pleasing idea of the relation between masters and their households. The collection of Gruter contains many pages of inscriptions expressive of the reciprocal feelings of masters and patrons, slaves and freedmen; and an equally copious and pleasingrecord of the feelings of slaves and freedmen towards their fellows.
The heir was the object of especial jealousy;HOC MONUMENTUM HÆREDEM NON SEQUITUR (H.M.H.N.S.)is a regular formula; the contrary stipulation, that the monument should go to the heir is most uncommon.[22]The prohibition to alienate is expressed with all the fulness of legal phraseology;HOC MONUMENTUM, CUM ÆDIFICIO SUPERPOSITO NEQUE MUTABITUR, NEQUE VÆNIET, NEQUE DONABITUR, NEQUE PIGNORI OBLIGABITUR, NEQUE ULLO MODO ABALIENABITUR, NE DE NOMINE EXEAT FAMILIÆ SUÆ,[23]and is sometimes enforced by a fine to the municipality, to the Roman people or the vestal virgins and the Pontifices, to secure the exaction of which one-fourth is to go to the informer. Legal chicanery was greatly dreaded as the means of defeating the purpose of the builder of the monument: hence we often find the protestation,HUIC MONUMENTO DOLUS MALUS ABESTO; sometimes with the additionET JURISCONSULTUS, a combination which, in countries where the civil law is practised, is a standing jest against the jurisconsults.[24]To preclude one source of cavil we find a man protesting on his tomb, in an inscription by which he directs a statue to be erected to him, thatwhen he made his will, he had “a sound and disposing mind;”SANUS, SANA QUOQUE MENTE INTEGROQUE CONSILIO, MEMOR CONDITIONIS HUMANÆ, TESTAMENTUM FECI.[25]It is recorded on the pyramid of C. Cestius that the monument had been erected in 330 days, “arbitratu Pontii Cl. Melæ heredis et Pothi liberti,” the heir not having been trusted alone with the execution. So in Horace (Sat. 2, 5, 105),
——SepulcrumPermissum arbitrio sine sordibus extrue.
In one inscription, it is made the condition of inheritance, that the monument should be begun in three days after the testator’s death, and its model is prescribed. A son apologizes to his father for having erected a humble monument to him on the ground of the smallness of the inheritance; “Si major auctoritas patrimoni mei fuisset, ampliori titulo te prosecutus fuissem, piissime pater.”[26]With this distrust of posterity, it was natural that men should erect their monuments in their own lifetime, leaving to their heirs only the duty of inserting the years of their age; for the year of the decease, which the Romans marked by the Consuls, is rarely given.Sibi vivus fecit(sometimesse vivo, se vivisevenme vivus, se vivus) is often found, as on the sarcophagus of M. Diogenes Verecundus, formerly in York. Mindus Zosimus Senior tells usplainly on his tomb his reason for not leaving the choice to his heir; he was afraid of his discharging the duty in a shabby way.
Vivus mi feci, ne post me lentius heresConderet exiguo busta suprema rogo.[27]
A body once placed in a tomb could not be transferred to another without the permission of the pontiffs, nor could the tomb even be repaired, if the reparation involved the moving of the remains, without the sanction of the authorities. We find on the tomb of a freedman a copy of the petition which he had presented to be allowed to remove the bodies of his wife and son, which he had temporarily placed in anobruendarium, or sarcophagus of clay, to a monument of marble, “ut quando ego esse desiero, pariter cum iis ponar.”[28]
Besides the monument itself, various appendages to it are mentioned in the Roman sepulcral inscriptions. The area was occupied by buildings designed to be used in the annual commemorations of the deceased for which his will provided. We read of adiæta, or summer-house; asolarium, or open balcony; anaccumbitorium, or entertaining room; anapparitorium, in which the tables and benches usedby the guests were kept. The ground annexed to the monument frequently contained a well, a cistern or apiscina, whence water for the funeral rites might be drawn, and a grove, whence wood might be cut for a sacrifice. If situated in a garden, the monument was calledcepotaphium. A building was erected, sometimes a permanentædificium, sometimes a simplenubilareor shed, to receive the person who guarded the tomb (locus habitationis tutelæ causa), and this office was generally entrusted to a freedman, who was calledædituus[29]. The inscriptions often record the sum which the deceased has bequeathed for an annual celebration at his tomb, commonly on his birthday. This was variously performed; sometimes by libations of wine and milk (profusiones), or by the scattering of roses on the tomb (rosalia), accompanied by a feast.L. OGIUS PATROCLUS, HORTOS CUM ÆDIFICIO HUIC SEPULCRO JUNCTO VIVUS DONAVIT, UT EX REDITU EORUM LARGIUS ROSÆ ET ESCÆ PATRONO SUO ET QUANDOQUE SIBI PONERENTUR.[30]We find a testator directing that an annual feast, for which he leaves 125 denarii, should be held by the pagani, or rural inhabitants of the district, on his birthday, or, if this condition were neglected, that the building andthe legacy should go to the College of Physicians, and to his freedmen, that they might feast on that day.QUOD SI FACTUM NON ERIT, TUM HIC LOCUS, UT SUPRA SCRIPTUM EST CUM ANNUIS CXXV.(denariis)IN PERPETUUM AD COLLEGIUM MEDICORUM ET AD LIBERTOS MEOS PERTINEAT, UT DIE NATALE MEO EPULENTUR.[31]We must not attach ideas of too great dignity to the “College of Physicians.” Every legal incorporation among the Romans was a college, and the medical body included practitioners of every grade, even to the veterinary surgeon and the midwife.[32]
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 lucernamIllius 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 donaAnnua, 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 PapiriQuæ mœrens 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 simulquePrimigeni vernæ, quos tulit una dies.Nam Capitolinæ compressi examine turbæSupremum 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 CŒLESTES ERUNT SCELERIS VINDICES.[39]
The wounded affections had their victims. P. L. Modestus raises a monument to Telesinia Crispinilla,CONJUGI SANCTISSIMÆ, QUÆ OB DESIDERIUMFILI SUI PIISSIMI VIVERE ABOMINAVIT ET POST DIES XV FATI EJUS ANIMO DESPONDIT.[40]Of a similar excess of maternal grief, causing the death of his wife, Cerialius Calistio gently complains;DUM NIMIS PIA FUIT FACTA EST IMPIA.[41]Communis and Casia inscribe a monument to the memory of a daughter who died at the age of fifteen, and of a son,QUI POST DESIDERIUM SORORIS SUÆ UNA DIE SUPERVIXIT.[42]The following distich records the death of Antonia Maura from her attendance on her sick husband:—
Itala me rapuit crudeli funere tellus,Dum foveo nimia sedulitate virum.
The complaint that “physicians were in vain” is of ancient date.[43]
Ussere ardentes intus mea viscera morbi,Vincere quos medicæ non potuere manus.
Pliny has not preserved the name of the unhappy man whose monument declaredTURBA MEDICORUM SE PERIISSE,[44]that he had died of a multitude of doctors. Nor do the surgeons escape reproach for their want of skill.MEDICI MALE MEMBRA SECARUNT; CORPORI QUOD SUPER EST TUMULUM TIBI FECIappears to be the address of a master to his gladiator,who, though mangled, had gained the victory, but lost his life from unskilful treatment of his wounds.[45]
Inscriptions are curious to the scholar, as a record of the changes which the Latin language underwent in successive ages. Manuscripts imperfectly answer this purpose, because transcribers were very apt, either from habit or a desire to render their labours more saleable, to change old forms for new, especially in orthography. Sepulcral inscriptions, being commonly the work of private individuals, represent more exactly the language of common life than public monuments. They serve the same purpose to the philologer, as provincial dialects, in which the old language of a country is often preserved, when obliterated in correct and fashionable speech. From the inscriptions in the tomb of the Scipios in the beginning of the third century,B.C., down to the establishment of Christianity, after which a cessation of Pagan formulæ gradually takes place, we have a succession of about six centuries. I will mention a few instances, collected from funeral inscriptions, which either throw light on the history of the Latin language, or illustrate that vulgar idiom and pronunciation, which has influenced the formation of the modern Italian.
The analogy of the Greek, and the formpaterfamilias, would lead to the conclusion that the genitive of the first declension had been originally formed ins, next deprived of its final letter and becomingaï, and finally contracted intoæ.[46]I have not observed in the sepulcral inscriptions any genitives of common nouns of this declension formed ins, but we find Faustines, Bellones, Midaes, as genitives of proper names, which, according to grammatical rule, would be formed inæ. The dative feminine inabusis allowed by grammarians in cases where ambiguity of sex would arise from the use ofis, as in deabus, filiabus, libertabus; but we find it used in inscriptions where no such ambiguity exists, as in nymphabus, fatabus, and even horabus. What is more remarkable is the extension of this formation of the dative to the second declension, in such words as diibus and amicibus. Some departures from ordinary usage may, no doubt, be accounted for by the circumstance that in Italy, as in England, the Muse of the cemetery was an “unlettered Muse.” “Hic jacit”[47]in a Latin inscription no more proves that there was no distinction between the neuter and the active verb, than “here lays” in an English churchyard. Nor can we argue from such constructions as “cumquambene vixi,”“ab ædem,” thatcumandabgoverned the accusative; or from such a concord ashunccollegium, that nouns inumwere once masculine. But in many instances what seem at first only vulgar solecisms will be found to have a warrant in analogy.Duaas a neuter for duo[48]is called a barbarism by Quinctilian (1, 5, 15); yet he acknowledges that every one saidduapondo, and that Messala maintained it to be correct. Evento for eventui, spirito for spiritui, show that the double mode of declension was not confined to domus. Solo for soli has the authority of Cato, who used soli for solius, and of Terence, who used solæ for the same case.[49]“Fatus suus” on a monument might seem a blunder, but malus fatus occurs in Petronius Arbiter (p. 270). We find in an inscription[50]
Diva, precor, Tellus alvo complectere sanctaOssua quorum in hoc nomina sunt lapide.
and ossuarium, the vase which received the burnt bones, shows thatossuawas a legitimate form. The use ofcarerewith an accusative[51](“Filios duos caruit:” “Dulcem carui lucem, cum te amisi ego conjunx”) has a parallel in Plautus. The usual construction ofcomposis with a genitive, but it is not a solecism, when L. Statius Diodorus inscribes a tablet to God, “Quod se precibus compotemfecisset;” for Livy (3, 35) uses it with an ablative. The use of susum for sursum explains the Latinsus(in susque deque) and the Italiansu. Meses for menses, senu for sinu, laguna for lacuna, longitia (lunghezza) for longitudo,sofor sum, all occurring in sepulcral inscriptions, show the inclination of the Latin language towards the Italian.
The Italian prefixes anito a word which begins withsand a consonant, when it follows one ending with a consonant, as iscambio, iscoglio, ispirito; and we find in inscriptions iscribit, ispiritus.[52]“Poor letter H” was treated with the same barbarous caprice of old as now, being omitted where it should stand, and interpolated where it should not. Thus we meet with ora, ortulus, omo, ospitium, onestus; and on the other hand, hædiculus, helephantus, horiundus, hordini, Hosiris, and post hobitum. Those who omit the aspirate, however, are always more numerous than those who insert it; in Italy they ultimately gained the ascendancy, and it is banished in pronunciation from modern Italian, which follows in this respect the usage of the old Romans, who said ædos and ircos.[53]The frequent substitution ofbforvon later monuments, bibi for vivi, bixit for vixit, lebo for levo, habe for ave, was caused bybbeing pronounced both in Greek and Latin with a slightaspiration,[54]whence we find Greek writers representing Varro by Βάῥῤων, and Flavius by Φλάβιος.
The record of the trades and professions of the deceased, which the Roman sepulcral inscriptions contain, often afford a curious insight into the differences of manners and customs between the ancient and the modern world. They supply the deficiencies of the notices in books, or explain obscure and solitary passages in the classics. One difference is obvious. There was no false shame in acknowledging the humble station which the deceased had filled in life. The dealer in pigs is recorded as a “negotiator suarius;” the female greengrocer as a “negotiatrix frumentaria et leguminaria,” who kept a stall beside one of the flights of steps descending to the Tiber.[55]It would not bementioned now on the tomb of a medical practitioner, that he had begun by practising his art in many market-places “fora multa secutus.”[56]Perhaps the most remarkable instance of the difference between ancient and modern ideas in this respect is furnished by the tomb of Æmilia Irene, whose husband calls himself “stupidus gregis urbani,” the clown of the city company of mountebanks.[57]The profession still finds candidates, but their vocation would hardly be recorded on their funeral monuments. The difference of feeling in ancient times may, perhaps, be accounted for from the circumstance, that these mountebanks exhibited at festivals in honour of the gods, and so acquired a certain respectability. The Christian writer, Arnobius, reproaches the Pagans with this practice. “Mimis dei delectantur stupidorum capitibus rasis, factis et dictis turpibus, fascinorum ingentium rubore.”[58]L. Cornelius Januarius is recorded on his monument to have been thefanaticusof the temples of Isis, Serapis, and Bellona, that is, one of those who were hired by the priests to stimulate the zeal of votaries by wild and frantic gestures, supposedto indicate the inspiration of the divinity.[59]The Grex Romanus inscribe a monument to the actor of pantomimes, Pylades, who first brought the Ion and Troades of Euripides on the Roman stage, and for his admirable acting had received the compliment of decurional ornaments from the most considerable cities of Italy.[60]The sepulcral inscriptions bear testimony to the minute subdivisions of the arts of public amusement. We owe to one of them the knowledge, that when Greek mimes (farces) were performed to the populace at Rome, avivâ voceexplanation in the Latin language answered the purpose of a translated libretto.[61]Ursus Togatus glorifies himself in his inscription, as the first who had exhibited feats of graceful dexterity with a ball of glass, for the amusement of those who frequented the baths of Trajan, Agrippa, Titus, and Nero.[62]The ancient sleight-of-hand men appear to have at least rivalled the Indian jugglers. One of them has even been thought worthy of commemoration by the Byzantine historian, Nicephorus Gregoras.[63]He could throw up a glass-ball into the air and catch it as it fell on thepoint of his finger-nail, the end of his elbow, and other parts of his body. Another inscription boasts that the subject of it could transfix an arrow in its flight with another arrow. Instances are recorded of early proficiency in theatrical arts. Eucharis, who died at the age of fourteen, declares herself on her tomb to have been
Docta, erodita pæne Musarum manu;Quæ modo nobilium ludos decoravi choroEt Græca in scena prima populo apparui.
A still more remarkable instance of precocity is that of L. Valerius, who in his thirteenth year was crowned in the Capitol in a contest of Latin poetry.[64]The theatrical inscriptions, which generally relate to Greeks, are of a boastful character, foreign to the genius of the Romans. The death of Vitalis, an actor and mimic, must have been a public calamity, “eclipsing the gaiety of nations,” if we believe his epitaph.
Me viso rabidi subito cecidere furores;Ridebat summus me veniente dolor.Non licuit quenquam mordacibus urere curis,Nec rerum incerta mobilitate trahi.Vincebat cunctos præsentia nostra timores,Et mecum felix quælibet hora fuit.Fingebam vultus, habitus ac verba loquentumUt plures uno crederes ore loqui.Ipse etiam, quem nostra oculis geminabat imago,Horruit in vultu se magis esse meo.
i. e.the person imitated was startled to find theimitation look more like him than himself![65]One instance, however, of a different kind we may quote, which for its expressive simplicity might be placed on the monument of a Macready.INGENUUM COMŒDUM, PROPTER SINGULAREM ARTIS PRUDENTIAM ET MORUM PROBITATEM.The latter quality appears to have been rare among theatrical performers, and we can forgive the fierce zeal of the Christian Fathers against the stage, when we read on the tomb of a girl who was training for pantomime,—
Cujus in octava lascivia surgere messeCœperat, et dulces fingere nequitias.[66]
Before leaving what may be called the external peculiarities of Roman sepulcral inscriptions, we may notice the custom of placing on the tomb representations of the implements employed by the deceased in his occupation. The tomb of a baker, discovered a few years since near the Porta Maggiore at Rome, was constructed in the form of anoven, and sculptured on it were the loaves, the kneading trough, and the mill worked by an ass.[67]From the tomb of Cossutius, a carpenter, we learn the form of the square, plumb-line, compasses, callipers, and chisel, the last being exactly in the form of thecelt, about which antiquaries have learnedly written. The ornatrix, or tirewoman, announces her vocation in life by a mirror, with a phial of perfume; the tabellarius, or postman, by a theca graphiaria, or pen-and-ink case; the mensor ædificiorum, by a decempeda, or ten-foot rule; the cultrarius, or cutler, by knives. The occurrence of these emblems on Christian tombs is said to have given rise to the reputation of unauthorized martyrdoms, the cutler being supposed to have been flayed alive, the wool-carder to have been torn to pieces with iron combs, the blacksmith to have been tortured with the forceps, the carpenter to have been sawn in two.[68]This custom continued in the middle ages. A tombstone in the museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society has a bell and a melting-pot engraved upon it, indicating that it covered the tomb of a bell-founder, and similar emblems have been found in Bakewell Church andelsewhere.[69]At the present day military and naval monuments alone display professional emblems.
It does not appear possible from the inscriptions on tomb-stones to deduce any inference respecting the average length of human life in the centuries which they embrace. They usually record with exactness the age of the deceased; often with the mention of the months, days, and hours; but they are only fragments of the record of mortality as it originally existed, and that record was itself very imperfect. Vast numbers were, of course, burnt or buried, to whom no monument was raised. There were pits without the Esquiline Gate, in which the common people were buried promiscuously. According to the statement of Ulpian, who wrote in the reign of Alexander Severus, registers of population, age, sex, disease and death had been kept with exactness by the censors for ten centuries, and from observations grounded on these, according to Dr. Bissett Hawkins’s Medical Statistics,[70]from which I quote, the expectation or mean term of human life among the Romans was thirty years; while that of England, according to Mr. Finlaison, is fifty for the easy classes of society, and forty-five for the whole population. I do not put much faith in bills of mortality of the time of Servius Tullius, considering the rarity even of historical documents in the earlyages of Rome. The monuments, too, are, in a large proportion of cases, to military men, who appear to have been cut off at very early ages. But many reasons may be given why the average of life should be shorter than in England. There was no provision for the poor among them, unless the irregular profusion ofcongiariacan be called so; there were no public hospitals; the city was in many parts unhealthy; their clothing not favourable to cleanliness, though remedied, in some measure, by the bath; and life was often shortened by suicide, which was regarded as venial if not meritorious. The average yielded by the inscriptions would certainly be low; I have noticed one death at 102 years,[71]90 of which were passed without disease, and one at 100,[72]one at 92,[73]but these are rare. Valerius Julianus inscribes a monument to his son, who was three years old, and his mother (mammulæ), who was 80.
Dispara damna lege Parcarum et stamina dispara;Hæc ridenda mihi est, hic lacrymandus erit.Hæc namque emeritos bis quadraginta per annosVixit; at hic tertio Consule natus obit.Cur modo tam præceps, iterum tam sera fuistiFuneris amborum dic rea Persephone.Vix lucem vidisse satis qui vivere posset;Vivere quæ nollet vix potuisse mori.[74]
We now approach a more interesting inquiry. What light do the Roman sepulcral inscriptions throw upon the social relations, the domestic affections, the religious belief of the people from whom they originate? The voice of nature speaks more truly from the tomb than anywhere else; and if monumental phrases at last become formulary and unmeaning, in their origin at least they carry with them a deep significance, and express a genuine sentiment. We feel curious to know how a people so different from ourselves in manners and religion expressed themselves, in reference to the most solemn event of human existence. For what qualities did they praise their departed friends? Whether true or false, in reference to the individual, the monumental panegyric will, at all events, teach us what was the standard of virtue in the conceptions of the times. In what language did they express their affection or regret? With what hopes respecting the future did they bid them farewell?
The Roman lapidary style was well adapted to express feeling or describe character with energetic conciseness, and in this respect stands in striking contrastwith the diffuse and overloaded epitaphs in which the moderns delight. A loquacious or boastful epitaph in Latin excites the suspicion of the critic of inscriptions, unless it is evidently of the latest age of heathenism.[75]The use of the Latin language has been of no avail in checking the prolixity of modern composers; the Italians alone have caught the true spirit of classical antiquity, and can compress much meaning into a few words. The language of genuine sorrow is simple and concise. What could convey to the heart the feeling of a mother’s grief and affection more forcibly, than the apostrophe,AVE LUCI, PRÆREPTE MATRI!orFILI BENE QUIESCAS! MATER TUA ROGAT TE UT ME AD TE RECIPIAS. The inscription of the sarcophagus in our Museum,D. M. SIMPLICIÆ FLORENTINÆ, ANIMÆ INNOCENTISSIMÆ, QUÆ VIXIT MENSES X., SIMPLICIUS PATER FECIT, would have gained nothing in pathos by the elaborate description of a father’s sorrow. Neither would the inscription placed by her parents on Cornelia Anniana, who died just when her prattle was beginning to delight their ears.FILIÆ DULCISSIMÆ, JAM GARRULÆ, BIMULÆ NONDUM.[76]The great majority of records of the dead content themselves with the mention of the name, station, and age, or with such a brief and modest encomium as is expressed in the wordsHOMINI OPTIMO ET SINGULARIS EXEMPLI.
We sometimes, indeed, find in epitaphs a play upon a name, hardly consistent with our notions of the true style of such compositions. Yet a genuine sorrow might be struck with the relation between the name and the character, such as the second of these inscriptions notices, or find relief in the playful allusion in the third. On the tomb of Aper[77]was inscribed this distich:—
Innocuus Aper ecce jaces, non Virginis iraNec Meleager atrox perfodit viscera ferro.
And on the tomb of Glyconis,[78]—
Hoc jacet in tumulo secura Glyconis honesto.Dulcisnomine erat, anima quoque dulcior usque.
On that of Floridus, inscribed, it should seem, with a flower,[79]—
Quod vixi, flos est. Servat lapis hoc mihi nomen.Noli Deos Manes; flos satis est titulo.
What our writers on heraldry callcantingand the French,armes parlantes,i. e.figures allusive to family names, was not unknown to the Romans; it is found on their coins; as a steer (vitulus) on the denarius of Q. VoconiusVitulus; a murex, on that of FuriusPurpureo; a foot, on that of Crassipes, and a flower on that of AquilliusFlorus.[80]
In those inscriptions which enter into a fuller enumeration of public services, one difference is striking to a person accustomed to modern ones, namely, the absence in the former of all mention of acts of social benevolence. It is true that the erection of a fountain, the construction of a road, the dedication of a temple, the exhibition of gladiatorial and floral games, the bequest of a legacy for an annual feast, and similar acts of popular munificence, are often commemorated, as titles of honour; but I do not remember to have met with a record, originating in pagan times, of a life devoted to the alleviation of misery, to the relief of indigence, to the removal of ignorance and vice. Such virtues belong especially to the school of Christianity. Thefollowing inscription would be proved by its tenor to relate to a Christian woman, even if the date did not fix it to the middle of the fifth century of our æra.DEO FIDELIS, DULCIS MARITO, NUTRIX FAMILLÆ, CUNCTIS HUMILIS, PLACATO PURO CORDE, AMATRIX PAUPERUM.[81]
When parents erect a funeral monument to their children, the inscription very frequently embodies the sentiment of Cato the elder, in Cicero de Senectute (c. 23), the inversion of the order of nature which the performance of such a duty by the parent involves. “Catonem, cujus a me corpus crematum est; quod contra decuit ab illo meum.” Thus in an inscription at Naples by Calvidius to his son, who had died at the age of 20;QUOD FILIUS PATRI FACERE DEBUIT PATER FECIT FILIO; and in another;QUOD FILIA PATRI FACERE DEBUERAT MORS IMMATURA FECIT UT FACERET PATER. The sentiment is concisely expressed in the following distich:—
Quod decuit natam patri præstare sepultoHoc contra natæ præstitit ipse pater.[82]
A mother, burying her son, who died at the age of 35, complains,HUNC LEGES LETI PRÆPOSTERÆ ERIPUERE MATRI, QUÆ UT ANNIS MORTE QUOQUE ESSET PRIOR. Parents not only call themselvesinfelicissimi, for the loss of their children, butimpiiandcrudeles, because they survive them.
Children from their premature grave endeavour to moderate their parents’ grief, by laying the blame upon the Fates.
Nec tibi nec nobis æternum vivere cessit:Quod pueri occipimus Fata querenda putes.[83]
A father justifies himself to his daughter, for not having died and mingled his ashes with hers, by his duty to his surviving children.
Quæ tibi cunque mei potuerunt pignora amorisNata, dari, populo sunt lacrumante data.Et volui majora nimis; sed cura meorumFida tui prohibet me cinerem esse rogi.[84]
Mothers regret, under the loss of their children, that they had ever become mothers.
Cernis ut orba meis, hospes monumenta locavi,Et tristis senior natos miseranda requiro.Exemplis referenda mea est deserta senectus,Ut steriles vere possint gaudere maritæ.[85]Hæc quæcunque legis, devoto pectore, materDa lacrimas, et me sic peperisse dole.Hic jacet, extinctus crudeli funere, natusUltima vivendi qui mihi causa fuit.[86]
The sentiment of the following inscription frequently occurs on monuments, and has been imitated in modern times.MATER MONUMENTUM FECITMŒRENS FILIO, EX QUO NIHIL UNQUAM DOLUIT, NISI CUM IS NON FUIT.[87]
We learn from the sepulcral inscriptions that the Romans had the same familiar substitutes as ourselves for the formal appellations of father and mother,mammaandtata. The following inscription is found at Rome:D.M. ZETHO CORINTHUS TATA EJUS ET NICE MAMMA. VIXIT. ANN. I. D. VI.[88]These again had their affectionate diminutives,mammulaandtatula. It is probable, however, that the use of them was confined to freedmen, and to that class of society. In one instance[89]a man erects a monument to his agedbonne,NONNÆ SUÆ. The word is not found in classical Latinity; but it is the undoubted original ofnun, and may suggest that conventual vows were originally taken chiefly by aged females. In Italy at the present day it is the familiar name for grandmother.
The inscriptions of children on the tombs of their parents, as might be expected, are more brief and general, expressive of gratitude and filial piety:MATRI DULCISSIMÆ, PIENTISSIMÆ, orPIISSIMÆ, CARISSIMÆ, OPTIMÆ; PATRI AMABILI, OPTIMO; or conjointlyPARENTIBUS OPTIMIS, is the usual styleof these inscriptions. The monument of Meia records that she was the mother of seven sons who had joined in raising a monument of Parian marble to her memory.
Meia fui, felix septem circumdata natis;Dum vixi adstabat turba tenella mihi.Ut mihi grata vicem natorum turba referretHoc mihi de Pario marmore struxit opus.[90]
I must observe here, by way of caution, that the authors of fictitious inscriptions have been nowhere more active than in producingsentimentalinscriptions. That on Julia Alpinula was received as genuine by Johannes Müller, the historian of Switzerland and pronounced by Lord Byron to be the most pathetic of human compositions.JULIA ALPINULA HIC JACEO. INFELICIS PATRIS INFELIX PROLES DEÆ AVENTICÆ SACERDOS. EXORARE PATRIS NECEM NON POTUI. MALE MORI IN FATIS ILLI ERAT. VIXI ANN. XXIII.The hint was taken from Tacitus (Hist. 1, 68), where Cæcina is said to have put Julius Alpinus, the chief man of Aventicum, to death. It was sent by Paulus Gulielmus, a notorious literary impostor, to Lipsius, but the original has never been seen, and it is now universally admitted to be a forgery. Not a few of the poetical inscriptions in Burmann’s “Anthologia” are of thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was certainly, however, by no fraud of the author that the beautiful lines in Jortin’s “Lusus Poetici” beginning,—
Quæ te tam tenera rapuerunt Pœta juventa,