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3.3

3.3.1 Tombs
3.3.2 Beliefs about the Underworld

3.3.1 Tombs

Historical background

Most people in the Roman world probably did not have a clear idea of what happened after death. 'Mystery Cults' – such as the cult of Isis – offered their followers a vision of life after death in which followers would be 'saved' and their condition improved, but otherwise Roman religion didn't really dwell on what life after death might be like. We know that the Romans believed that the spirits of the dead went somewhere and remained aware of what happened in the world of the living because of the worship and respect paid to ancestors. If death was a complete end of a person then asking for support and good will from ancestors would be a waste of time! In reality there were probably (to quote the Roman comic playwright Terence) 'as many opinions as there are people', and it's not possible to point to one 'set' of beliefs as being the 'real Roman view'.

Attitudes and practices changed over time, for example the evidence suggests that the popularity of cremation, as opposed to burial of a full body, fluctuated. Up until about AD 100 cremation was the usual form of Roman burial; the ashes of the deceased would be placed in small jar and placed in a tomb. Roman funerals were generally made up of a procession, the cremation and burial, eulogy (a speech praising the dead person), feast, and then commemoration. The commemoration might consist of an elaborate tomb or an epitaph (inscription giving information about the person). The dead were also honoured at a festival called the Parentalia which lasted nine days.

Evidence

There are eight necropolises outside the walls of Pompeii. Necropolis means 'city of the dead' and is the word used to describe Roman cemetries. These were different to modern cemetries however, as they were not 'consecrated' (the modern term meaning that ground has been made sacred) or associated with a religious building. The largest ones even had shops and houses in amongst the tombs!

These necropolises were positioned along the roads stretching out from the city gates, the dead were not allowed to be buried inside the city walls. There was supposed to be a thirty metre 'buffer zone' around the city in which people were not allowed to put tombs, but sometimes important people were given permission to have their tomb inside this perimeter. The evidence suggests that necropolises were not for particular social classes or types of people, there were a variety of people laid to rest in them.

When a person was cremated their ashes would be placed in an urn and and placed in or near a tomb. Tombs varied from very plain, brick chambers to incredibly elaborate, large, decorated monuments. Grave markers – like modern headstones – called cippi (singular cippus) and funerary statues were also used. The statues were mass produced in standard shapes, but often with the heads left unfinished so that they could be carved later to look like the dead person.

Tombs were rarely for individuals, instead a household might have a tomb in which all its members were put; even slaves and freedmen/women. It was the responsibility of the paterfamilias – the head of the household – to make sure that everyone got a proper funeral and burial. If you didn't have family or were very poor you might belong to a 'funeral club' to which you would pay a fee whilst alive, so that you could be buried in the club's tomb with the other members.

Tombs were a way of ensuring that the dead were not forgotten, and therefore the 'best' spots for tombs were along the road or close to the city where lots of people would see them. The decoration or inscription on the tombs tell us what people wanted to be remembered for.

3.3.2 Beliefs about the Underworld

Historical background

Most people in the Roman world probably did not have a clear idea of what happened after death. 'Mystery Cults' – such as the cult of Isis – offered their followers a vision of life after death in which followers would be 'saved' and their condition improved, but otherwise Roman religion didn't really dwell on what life after death might be like. We know that the Romans believed that the spirits of the dead went somewhere and remained aware of what happened in the world of the living because of the worship and respect paid to ancestors. If death was a complete end of a person then asking for support and good will from ancestors would be a waste of time! In reality there were probably (to quote the Roman comic playwright Terence) 'as many opinions as there are people', and it's not possible to point to one 'set' of beliefs as being the 'real Roman view'.

Attitudes and practices changed over time, for example the evidence suggests that the popularity of cremation, as opposed to burial of a full body, fluctuated. Up until about AD 100 cremation was the usual form of Roman burial; the ashes of the deceased would be placed in small jar and placed in a tomb. Roman funerals were generally made up of a procession, the cremation and burial, eulogy (a speech praising the dead person), feast, and then commemoration. The commemoration might consist of an elaborate tomb or an epitaph (inscription giving information about the person). The dead were also honoured at a festival called the Parentalia which lasted nine days.

Evidence

These three sources are extracts from three very different Roman authors: Propertius, Lucian and Lucretius. Each gives us an insight into Roman beliefs about funerals and the afterlife, but they are not entirely consistent with each other, reflecting the lack of a widespread 'official' belief system.

Propertius was a Roman poet who mostly wrote love poems. This poem is from the perspective of a deceased woman to a man who mourns her (his exact identity is unknown). It reflects ideas about the Underworld as a dark, shadowy physical place from which there is no return. Features include a gate, a ruling god, a river or sea there ('shores of deafness'), and a ferryman who has to be paid. Her funeral was accompanied by trumpets and she was cremated.

Lucian lived in the Roman province of Syria, on the Eastern border of the Roman Empire. He was well known for writing satires, and so his writings should be taken as in a humourous rather than serious way. In this work, he presents Roman mourning rituals as an exaggerated spectacle, including mourners weeping, wailing, beating themselves, tearing their hair, ripping the skin on their cheeks, and rolling around on the floor. He also mentions a ferryman who must be paid or the ghost of the dead person can’t go to the Underworld, and adds the detail of Cerberus the three-headed dog who guards the Underworld.

Lucretius was a poet with a great interest in a school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Epicureanism was a popular school of philosophy in the Roman world, but it never entered the political 'mainstream'. Lucretius' great work On the Nature of Things is a long poem which explains Epicurean philosophy, including its beliefs about the soul and death. Epicureans believed that the soul and body were united in life, but one could not exist without the other. When the body dies, the soul also dies and is no more. Epicureans say, therefore, that fearing death or worrying about 'what comes next' is pointless; we will not be aware of anything after death so why worry about it? Lucretius suggests in his poem that fear of punishment after death in an Underworld is actually people worrying about things in their lives, and creating symbols of this after death. Lucretius and the Epicureans believed that people should make the most of their one life and not waste time worrying about death and what happens afterwards. 

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