Roman funerary practices include the Ancient Romans’ religious rituals concerning funerals, cremations, and burials.
They were part of the Tradition (Latin: mos maiorum), the unwritten code from which Romans derived their social norms.
Roman cemeteries were located outside the sacred boundary of its cities (pomerium). They were visited regularly with offerings of food and wine, and special observances during Roman festivals in honor of the dead. Funeral monuments appear throughout the Roman Empire, and their inscriptions are an important source of information for otherwise unknown individuals and history. A Roman sarcophagus could be an elaborately crafted artwork, decorated with relief sculpture depicting a scene that was allegorical, mythological, or historical, or a scene from everyday life.
Although funerals were primarily a concern of the family, which was of paramount importance in Roman society, those who lacked the support of an extended family usually belonged to guilds or collegia which provided funeral services for members.
When a person died at home, family members and intimate friends gathered around the death bed. In accordance with a belief that equated the soul with the breath, the closest relative gave the last goodbye to the passing of spirit from the body with the last kiss and closed the eyes. The relatives began lamentations, calling on the deceased by name.
The body was then placed on the ground, washed, and anointed. This practice mirrored the placement of new-born infants on the bare earth. Mourners were expected to dress in a manner appropriate to the occasion and to their station (for example, an upper-class citizen would wear a dark-colored toga (toga pulla), reserved for funerals).
If the deceased was a male citizen, he was dressed in his toga; if he had earned a wreath in life, he wore one in death. Wreaths also are found in burials of initiates into mystery religions. After the body was prepared, it lay in state in the atrium of the family home (domus), with the feet pointed toward the door. Other circumstances pertained to those who lived, as most Romans did, in apartment buildings (insulae), but elite practices are better documented.
Although embalming was unusual and regarded as mainly an Egyptian practice, it is mentioned in Latin literature, with a few instances documented by archaeology in Rome and throughout the Empire where no Egyptian influence can be assumed. Since elite funerals required complex arrangements, the body had to be preserved in the meantime.
