For the Romans death did not end the relationship between the deceased and the family: it transformed it. The funeral was a sequence of rites that separated the dead from the living, accompanied them into the world of the Manes and reinserted them into the memory of the house as an ancestor. Other rites, at fixed points in the calendar, renewed this bond every year.
The last moments
When a person was about to die, the closest relative caught the last breath with a kiss and closed the eyes. Then the family called out the dead person's name aloud: this is the conclamatio, a way of confirming death and at the same time marking separation.
The body was washed, anointed and laid out in the atrium of the house, with the feet towards the door. In front of the entrance, according to several sources, branches of cypress or fir were placed to warn passers-by that the house was struck by mourning and therefore in a state of impurity.
The attendants
The practical tasks were entrusted to the libitinarii, undertakers based at the sacred grove of Libitina, a deity linked with death. For the most solemn funerals, praeficae were also hired, women who sang laments and praises of the dead, together with players of flutes and horns.
The procession and the ancestor masks
The funerals of great aristocratic families had a spectacular element. The Greek historian Polybius, who lived for a long time in Rome in the second century BC, describes it in the sixth book of his Histories with evident admiration.
Noble houses kept the imagines maiorum, wax masks reproducing the faces of ancestors who had held magistracies. During the funeral these masks were worn by men chosen for their similarity in stature and appearance, dressed in the togas and insignia of the ancestor's office. The forefathers thus seemed to parade through the streets again, accompanying the newly dead.
On reaching the Forum, the procession stopped at the Rostra. The "ancestors" sat on ivory chairs, and a son or relative delivered the laudatio funebris, the eulogy of the deceased and then of each of the ancestors present. Polybius remarks that no spectacle could be more inspiring for an ambitious young man.
Cremation, burial and purification
For many centuries the Romans mainly practised cremation, alongside inhumation. Even in the case of cremation, according to Varro, a small bone was cut from the body, the os resectum, and buried: it was the earth that had to receive the dead for the tomb to become a religiously protected place.
A nine-day period of mourning followed, ending with the cena novendialis and a libation to the Manes. The family purified itself with water and fire, and the house was ritually swept.
The Parentalia
Every year, from 13 to 21 February, the Parentalia were celebrated, days dedicated to the family's dead. During this period temples remained closed and no weddings were held. Families brought simple offerings to the tombs: flowers, salt, grain, bread soaked in wine, violets. The last day, the Feralia, was the public festival of the dead.
On 22 February came the Caristia, when living relatives gathered for a banquet and were reconciled: having honoured the dead, the family restored its own unity.
The Lemuria
In May, on the 9th, 11th and 13th, the Lemuria were celebrated, devoted to appeasing the lemures, restless spirits. Ovid, in the Fasti, describes the domestic rite in great detail.
- At midnight the father of the family rises, barefoot.
- He makes a gesture with his fingers to ward off evil and washes his hands in spring water.
- He takes black beans and throws them behind him without turning, repeating nine times a formula by which he redeems himself and his household.
- He washes again, strikes bronze objects and nine times bids the spirits of the forefathers to leave the house.
Only then does he turn round: the rite is complete.
A death in several stages
Taken together, these rites show death as a passage that takes time. The deceased is first separated and sent away, then accompanied through a period of impurity, and finally settled permanently among the ancestors. The annual festivals keep the bond alive and, at the same time, keep the dead in their place.
In short
- The Roman funeral began with the last kiss and the conclamatio, the calling of the name.
- Noble families paraded the wax masks of their ancestors, as described by Polybius.
- The laudatio funebris in the Forum celebrated the deceased and their lineage.
- The February Parentalia honoured the family's dead with simple offerings at the tombs.
- The May Lemuria drove away restless spirits with the night rite of the black beans.
