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. Being placed 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 OPUS is 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 offers this 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 with much 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 of ollæ, 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 NULLUM is 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 pleasing record 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 addition ET 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, that when 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),
——Sepulcrum
Permissum 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 (sometimes se vivo, se vivis even me vivus, se vivus) is often found, as on the sarcophagus of M. Diogenes Verecundus, formerly in York. Mindus Zosimus Senior tells us plainly 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 heres
Conderet 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 an obruendarium, 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 a diæta, or summer-house; a solarium, or open balcony; an accumbitorium, or entertaining room; an apparitorium, in which the tables and benches used by the guests were kept. The ground annexed to the monument frequently contained a well, a cistern or a piscina, 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 called cepotaphium. A building was erected, sometimes a permanent ædificium, sometimes a simple nubilare or shed, to receive the person who guarded the tomb (locus habitationis tutelæ causa), and this office was generally entrusted to a freedman, who was called ædituus[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 and the 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]