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above all food and drink.29 These were placed in the tomb at the time of burial, but this act alone was insufficient. Periodic sacrifices were also required, in the absence of which the dead would be tortured by hunger and thirst. Thus the plea, on a gravestone near Syrian Antioch, that the passer-by "tearfully propitiate me with libations on the tomb and garlands of flowers in season” (SEG 7.69), or the request on the Roman inscription cited above (CIL 6.2357 Buecheler, Carm. Epigr. 838 = ILS 8204) for wine to be poured into the tomb.30 This was effected by libation pipes, which are frequently found in tandem with cremation urns, such as that on display in Wales at Caerleon; and with sarcophagi, of which there is an excellent example at the Colchester and Essex Museum, again in the United Kingdom.31 When they could afford it, the Romans even equipped their tombs with a mortuary kitchen (the culina), and with a dining-room (triclinium) and gardens (horti),32
32
When the sacrifices were carried out in a timely manner, the di manes were uniformly beneficent. Neglect of the sacrifices, however, would cause the tortured spirits to issue forth from their graves and inflict reprisals upon the living as savage as those attested among the LoDagaa in present-day Africa, or the Nāyars in India.33 Typically, punishment was limited to the individuals who had failed to comply with their obligations,34 but the Augustan poet Ovid tells us that, on one occasion, the people at large neglected the parentalia, the one ancestral rite mandated by the state, with the following results:
This did not go unpunished, for it is said that from that ominous
Day Rome glowed with the funeral fires without the city. Indeed they say, although I can scarcely credit it, that the Ancestors went forth from the tombs to wail in the hours of Darkest night, and hideous ghosts, they say, a spectral throng,
Howled throughout the city streets and the wide fields. Afterwards, the honours which had been neglected were again paid
To the tombs, and a limit was set to prodigies and funerals.
(Fasti 2.549-556)
126
JOHN KARL EVANS
above all food and drink.29 These were placed in the tomb at the time of burial, but this act alone was insufficient. Periodic sacrifices were also required, in the absence of which the dead would be tortured by hunger and thirst. Thus the plea, on a gravestone near Syrian Antioch, that the passer-by "tearfully propitiate me with libations on the tomb and garlands of flowers in season” (SEG 7.69), or the request on the Roman inscription cited above (CIL 6.2357 Buecheler, Carm. Epigr. 838 = ILS 8204) for wine to be poured into the tomb. 30 This was effected by libation pipes, which are frequently found in tandem with cremation urns, such as that on display in Wales at Caerleon; and with sarcophagi, of which there is an excellent example at the Colchester and Essex Museum, again in the United Kingdom." When they could afford it, the Romans even equipped their tombs with a mortuary kitchen (the culina), and with a dining-room (triclinium) and gardens (horti),3
32
When the sacrifices were carried out in a timely manner, the di manes were uniformly beneficent. Neglect of the sacrifices, however, would cause the tortured spirits to issue forth from their graves and inflict reprisals upon the living as savage as those attested among the LoDagaa in present-day Africa, or the Nāyars in India.33 Typically, punishment was limited to the individuals who had failed to comply with their obligations,3 but the Augustan poet Ovid tells us that, on one occasion, the people at large neglected the parentalia, the one ancestral rite mandated by the state, with the following results:
This did not go unpunished, for it is said that from that ominous
Day Rome glowed with the funeral fires without the city. Indeed they say, although I can scarcely credit it, that the Ancestors went forth from the tombs to wail in the hours of Darkest night, and hideous ghosts, they say, a spectral throng,
Howled throughout the city streets and the wide fields. Afterwards, the honours which had been neglected were again paid
To the tombs, and a limit was set to prodigies and funerals.
(Fasti 2.549-556)
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