They would beat their chests and go about with torn clothes and their hair in a mess. Some people even paid professional mourners to do the job for them.

At funerals, the deceased person was first dressed in a special toga that signified his social level or office. Then the body was placed on a bed with torches and candles burning at each corner. Pine cones or branches would be burned to give off a sweet fragrance, and the corpse would lie in the house for about a week.

When it was time to go to the burial place, a procession of family and friends followed, as well as the professional mourners and actors who wore masks that symbolized the ancestors of the dead person. Music was also an important part of the ceremony. The body would then be cremated and the ashes put into a beautiful urn that was stored in a special place. If a family chose to bury the body instead of cremating it, the law required that it be buried outside the town limits.

The Romans believed that dead people went to live in the underworld with the gods of the dead. Offerings were made to these gods by pouring out wine or leaving food at the gravesite for nine days after burial, and then again on special festivals throughout the year.

Food For Thought

There is a wailing wall in Jerusalem today that is very sacred to the Jews who claim that it is the remaining wall from one of the earliest temples ever built. Do you think that the Jews copied the Romans in this custom? This is interesting given the animosity that existed between the Romans and the Jews.