Editing Funeral (section)

====Ancient Rome====
{{unreferenced section|date=February 2014}}
[[File:Sepolcro degli Scipioni 001 Entrata.jpg|thumb|Tomb of the [[Cornelia (gens)#Cornelii Scipiones|Scipios]], in use from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE]]
{{Main|Roman funerals and burial}}
In [[ancient Rome]], the eldest surviving male of the household, the ''pater familias'', was summoned to the death-bed, where he attempted to catch and inhale the last breath of the decedent.

Funerals of the socially prominent usually were undertaken by professional undertakers called ''libitinarii''. No direct description has been passed down of Roman funeral rites. These rites usually included a public procession to the tomb or pyre where the body was to be cremated. The surviving relations bore masks bearing the images of the family's deceased ancestors. The right to carry the masks in public eventually was restricted to families prominent enough to have held ''curule magistracies''. Mimes, dancers, and musicians hired by the undertakers, and professional female mourners, took part in these processions. Less well-to-do Romans could join benevolent funerary societies (''collegia funeraticia'') that undertook these rites on their behalf.

Nine days after the disposal of the body, by burial or cremation, a [[Banquet|feast]] was given (''cena novendialis'') and a libation poured over the grave or the ashes. Since most Romans were cremated, the ashes typically were collected in an urn and placed in a niche in a collective tomb called a ''columbarium'' (literally, "dovecote").<ref>{{Cite web |title=Columbarium {{!}} Roman, Architecture, Memorial {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/columbarium |access-date=2025-04-20 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> During this nine-day period, the house was considered to be tainted, ''funesta'', and was hung with Taxus baccata or Mediterranean Cypress branches to warn passersby. At the end of the period, the house was swept out to symbolically purge it of the taint of death.

Several Roman holidays commemorated a family's dead ancestors, including the ''Parentalia'', held February 13 through 21, to honor the family's ancestors; and the [[Lemuralia|Feast of the Lemures]], held on May 9, 11, and 13, in which [[ghost]]s (''larvae'') were feared to be active, and the ''pater familias'' sought to appease them with offerings of beans.

The Romans prohibited cremation or inhumation within the sacred boundary of the city ''([[pomerium]])'', for both religious and civil reasons, so that the priests might not be contaminated by touching a dead body, and that houses would not be endangered by funeral fires.

Restrictions on the length, ostentation, expense of, and behaviour during funerals and mourning gradually were enacted by a variety of lawmakers. Often the pomp and length of rites could be politically or socially motivated to advertise or aggrandise a particular kin group in Roman society. This was seen as deleterious to society and conditions for grieving were set. For instance, under some laws, women were prohibited from loud wailing or lacerating their faces and limits were introduced for expenditure on tombs and burial clothes.

The Romans commonly built tombs for themselves during their lifetime. Hence these words frequently occur in ancient inscriptions, V.F. Vivus Facit, V.S.P. Vivus Sibi Posuit. The tombs of the rich usually were constructed of [[marble]], the ground enclosed with walls, and planted around with trees. But common sepulchres usually were built below ground, and called [[hypogea]]. There were niches cut out of the walls, in which the urns were placed; these, from their resemblance to the niche of a pigeon-house, were called [[Columbarium|columbaria]].