SEPULCHRAL INSCRIPTIONS.

MONUMENTAL SLABS.

Extreme importance was attached by both Greeks and Romans to the due discharge of the rites of sepulture. Until earth had been three times sprinkled over the body of the departed, his spirit was conceived to be denied admission into the Elysian fields. The practice of burning the dead became common at Rome about the latter period of the republic. The inconvenience and expense of the process would necessarily restrict it to persons of some wealth. After the pile was consumed, the ashes of the deceased were gathered up by the nearest relative, and deposited in an urn. There are numerous instances in Britain of the Romans having buried their dead entire. Skeletons have been found in London, which Mr. Charles Roach Smith considers must have been deposited in the higher empire. As Christianity gained ground, the custom of burning the dead fell into disuse; the early Christians were unwilling to do needless violence to the dust of a fellow disciple, and resolved to discontinue the superstitious ceremonies which usually attended cremation.

Whether the body was previously reduced to ashes, or deposited in the ground unburnt, it was usual to raise a mound over the spot.

Ergo instauramus Polydoro funus: et ingens

Aggeritur tumulo tellus.

Æn. III. 62.

FUNERAL URN.

Sometimes, instead of a mound of earth, a monument of stone covered the place where the sepulchral urn was deposited. This was the case at Bremenium, as already described (p. 326). With the ashes or body of the deceased, it was usual to deposit a small brass coin to answer the demands of Charon. 'This custom of burying valuables and coins with the dead is by no means extinct; the humbler Irish will pawn their clothes to provide fresh pieces of money to throw into the coffins of their departed friends.'[^[145]] The Romans, as formerly observed, did not usually deposit either the unburnt bodies of the dead, or their ashes, within the walls of towns or stations. A curious exception to this practice has lately been noticed. In the month of October last (1850), a funereal urn was discovered within the station of Borcovicus, near the north-west corner. It was sunk in the earth, and was covered by an oblong flat stone, without inscription. The vase, which was of earthen-ware, and altogether devoid of ornament, was globular in its form, and of large dimensions. It measured two feet in diameter, and two feet in height. It contained ashes, amongst which was found a solitary silver coin of Hadrian. This urn is preserved at Chesters. On the slab covering the remains of the deceased person, the name and age were not unfrequently inscribed. The carving, which sometimes includes an effigy of the individual, is often very rude; the back of the stone is, for the most part, undressed. The inscriptions on these ‘frail memorials’ which in the mural region have come down to our times, and ‘implore the passing tribute of a sigh,’ almost uniformly commence |DII MANES.| with the letters D. M.—diis manibus. The shades or departed spirits are, probably, themselves intended in this address, though much confusion exists upon the subject in the works of the ancient writers. In the following lines, Ovid represents the manes as being objects of worship:—

Est honor et tumulis: animas placate paternas;

Parvaque in extinctas munera ferte pyras.

Parva petunt MANES: pietas pro divite grata est

Munere: non avidos Styx habet ima Deos.

Tegula projectis satis est velata coronis;

Et sparsæ fruges, parcaque mica salis.

Some of the ceremonies here referred to by the Latin poet, are still in use, as all know who have visited the cemetery of Père la Chaise, in Paris. On the sepulchral slab, death is rarely mentioned; but the number of years, months, and days, that the deceased lived, is recorded with great particularity. The altar, of which an engraving is here introduced, was found at Cilurnum, and is now in the Library of the Dean and Chapter at Durham. It bears the following inscription—

D[IIS] M[ANIBVS] S[ACRVM]

FABIÆ HONOR

ATÆ FABIVS HON

ORATIVS TRIBVN[VS]

COH[ORTIS] I. VANGION[VM]

ET AVRELIA EGLIC

IANE FECER

VNT FILIÆ DVLCISSIMÆ

Sacred to the divine Manes of

Fabia Honorata.

Fabius Hon-

oratius the tribune of the

First cohort of Vangiones,[^[146]]

And Aurelia Eglic-

iane erected this

To their most sweet daughter.

MORTALITY OF THE GARRISON.

‘Tender souls!’ exclaims Hodgson, ‘your last act of piety to a beloved daughter has not been forgotten: the altar that bears the memorial of your affection still exists, though it has been banished from the custody of the ashes which were committed to its care.’ Though painful, it is yet pleasant to notice the heavings of natural affection in the martial bosom of a Roman soldier. This stone differs from most of the sepulchral monuments, in being an altar instead of a slab, and in not mentioning the age of the deceased. It has been remarked that the larger proportion of the tomb-stones of the mural region record the deaths of young persons. The climate of the north of England, particularly of the exposed district of the Barrier, must have told with fearful severity upon the constitutions of those who had been reared under the sunny skies of Italy and Spain.

SEPULCHRAL SLAB.

The large slab which is here figured, was found at Carvoran, and is now in the castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It reads—

D[IIS] M[ANIBVS]

AVRE[LIAE] FAIAE

D[OMO] SALONAS

AVRE[LIVS] MARCVS

Ↄ (centurio) OBSEQ[IO] CON-

IVG[IS] SANCTIS-

SIMAE QVAE VI-

XIT ANNIS XXXIII.

SINE VLLA MACVLA

To the divine Manes of

Aurelia Faia,

Of a house of Salona,

Aurelius Marcus

A centurion, out of affection

For his most holy wife

Who lived

Thirty three years,

Without any stain, erected this.

MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS.

It is not unnatural that a soldier while bemoaning the loss of a beloved wife in a land of strangers, should so dwell upon her virtues as to conceive that hers was a faultless character. Gruter gives an inscription which nearly resembles this. It was erected by Marcus Aurelius Paullus—

CONIVGI INCOMPARABILI

CVM QVA VIXIT ANNIS XXVII

SINE VLLA QVERELA

To his incomparable wife, with whom he had lived twenty-seven years without having had a single squabble.

‘This couple,’ says Mr. Akerman, ‘must for ever throw into the shade all the candidates for the Dunmow flitch.’

At Chesterholm is a slab which, though suffering from exposure to the weather, is still distinct:—

DIIS MANIBVS

CORN[ELIVS] VICTOR S. C. (Sibi Constitvit)

MIL[ES] ANN[OS] XXVI CIV[IS]

PANN[ONIAE] FIL[IVS] SATVRNI-

NI P.P VIX[IT] ANN[OS] LV. D[IES] XI

CONIVX PROCVRAVI

To the divine Manes; Cornelius Victor ordered this to be erected over himself. He was a soldier twenty-six years, a citizen of Pannonia, and the very dutiful (P.P. pientissime) son of Saturninus. He lived fifty-five years and eleven days. I, his wife, saw his order executed.

The tomb-stone to a young physician has already been given, page [227].

CENTURIAL STONES.

The only other class of inscribed stones to which reference will now be made, is that of centurial stones. The centurions seem to have been in the habit of placing a common stone, inscribed with the name of their century—company or troop, in that section of the Wall which they had built. The letters are usually very rudely cut; sometimes they are enclosed in a border, as in the annexed example, which, probably found in the vicinity of Cilurnum, is now at Alnwick Castle.

COH[ORS] V

> (centuria) CAECILI[I]

PROCVLI

The fifth cohort.

The century of Cæcilius

Proculus.

More frequently, however, the stone is entirely unadorned, as in this example, which, along with

the former, was removed from Walwick Chesters to Alnwick Castle. The letter C, reversed thus Ↄ, or more frequently an angular mark resembling the letter V, laid upon its side thus >, is the sign usually adopted for centuria, century. Two centurial stones are shewn in the wood-cut introduced in page 190. The upper one, that of Valerius Maximus, was described, a century ago, by Horsley, who found it near Haltwhistle-burn. Afterwards it was built up in a gable of the Cawfield farm-house, against which a coal-shed was formed. Here, though sadly begrimed, it was protected from further injury, until rescued by the present owner of the farm, and safely deposited in the museum of antiquities at Chesters.