The place of interment, as one might suppose, belonged exclusively to the family, and strangers were forbidden burial there by some well accepted law of the Athenians[254]. This law, together with that making it a crime to destroy a tomb, is attributed by Cicero to Solon[255]. Accordingly, from the fact of a person being buried in the tomb of a certain family, the orators sometimes argued his relationship with that family, for the purpose of establishing the connection of some direct descendant. By that method, Demosthenes sought to prove the descent of Eubulides from Buselus[256], and, in the same manner, demonstrated to the court the citizenship of Euxitheus[254].
In the earliest times, the reason for selecting the former residence of the deceased as a place of burial was that the departed might be near his family[257]. Later, however, in many of the states, there were enactments passed which prohibited interments within the city limits. At Delos, after 425 B. C., the Athenians cleared the whole island of those already interred there, and commanded that, thereafter, all corpses should be carried to the adjoining small island of Rhene[257]. Among the Sicyonians, there was an ancient law against burials within the city walls, and it had been so religiously observed that even when the great Aratus died, the people hesitated about entombing him in the city until re-assured by a special dispensation from the Delphic oracle[258]. The Athenians were so particular about preserving the very letter of a similar law that even the cenotaphs of those who had been slain in battle were erected in a beautiful suburb of the city[259] on the way which led to the Academy[260].
The motive of these states in requiring burial outside the walls, was without doubt, to avoid the ceremonial contamination supposed to arise from the proximity of corpses.
Possibly, as was the case in ancient Rome, the effect on the sanitary condition of the city made it desirable to remove the burying ground[261]. The very existence of such laws indicates that the citizens must, at some time, have experienced the ill effects of burials within the city.
There were states, however, which, for various reasons, preferred that the interments should be within the walls. That was the case at Sparta, where we should naturally expect to find laws directly the contrary. Lycurgus even permitted the Spartans to raise tombs near the temples. This he did that he might insure the graves against the violence of the enemy[262], and that, at the same time, he might accustom the youths to the sight from infancy, so that they might have no horror of death[263]. Again, the Tarentines, in compliance with an oracle, buried all their dead within the walls in a part of the city toward the east[264]. The Megareans also had within their city, the sepulchres of those who had fallen in the war against the Medes, and likewise a heroic monument called the Aesymnium. The origin of this custom was as follows: Aesymnus, having been sent to Delphi to ask the oracle what the Megareans should do to be happy, returned with the response that this might be if a number of them were “congregated together.” This they interpreted to mean the burial of their dead in one place, and accordingly, they instituted a new cemetery in the city[265].