Life in the Roman world of Nero and StPaul . mix withperfume. These remains are then placed in the urnof bronze, marble, alabaster, or maybe of colouredglass, and the urn fills one more niche in the chamberof the monument. Now and then there were more magnificentobsequies than those of Silius. A pubhc funeralmight be decreed to a man who had deserved con-spicuously well of the state. On such an occasionthe crier would go round, calling Oyez, come allwho choose to the funeral of So-and-So. Theinvitation meant, not merely participation in a solemnprocession, but also in the funeral feast, and pr
Life in the Roman world of Nero and StPaul . mix withperfume. These remains are then placed in the urnof bronze, marble, alabaster, or maybe of colouredglass, and the urn fills one more niche in the chamberof the monument. Now and then there were more magnificentobsequies than those of Silius. A pubhc funeralmight be decreed to a man who had deserved con-spicuously well of the state. On such an occasionthe crier would go round, calling Oyez, come allwho choose to the funeral of So-and-So. Theinvitation meant, not merely participation in a solemnprocession, but also in the funeral feast, and probablyan exhibition of gladiators. On the other hand the 446 LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD CHAP. majority of burials were naturally of a far moresimple and inexpensive kind. The poor could notafford to use unguents and keep their dead till thethird day; they could not afford real cypress trees,but must use cheaper substitutes, if anything at could not afford all the processionists andparaphernalia of the undertaker, but must be satisfied. Fig. 123. — Columbarium. with four commonplace bearers, who hurried awaythe corpse in the evening, not on a couch but in acheap box, and carried it out to the common necropolisbeyond the Esquiline Gate. Seldom could they affordthe fuel to burn the body, and in many cases it mustsimply be thrown into a pit roughly dug and thereleft without monument. To secure more respectand decency there were many burial clubs, whetherconnected with the trade-guilds or not, and theseprocured a joint tomb of the kind known as a *dove- COLUMBARIA 447 cote, or columbarium, from the resemblance of itsniches to so many pigeon-holes. These coopera-tive sepulchres were underground vaults, and itis perhaps hardly necessary to point out theirdirect relation to the Christian catacombs. Similartombs were sometimes used by the great Romanfamilies for the remains of the freedmen and slavesof their house. ^-Vr; ^
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