Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions Part 3

of man's history. Even the inscription, D. M. ET SOMNO aeTERNALI.

SECURITATI MEMORIaeQUE PERPETUae aeLIae FLAVIae MELITANae,[122] may not involve that disbelief which the words "eternal sleep" seem to us to imply. From the list of doubters, at all events, must be excluded T. Claudius Panoptes, who erects a monument to his two daughters, in obedience to a vision (ex viso), and placed this challenge to sceptics on their tomb. TU QUI LEGES ET DUBITAS MANES ESSE, SPONSIONE FACTA INVOCA NOS ET INTELLIGES.[123] On the other hand, it is not to be denied that many inscriptions breathe a very Epicurean spirit. AMICI DUM VIVIMUS VIVAMUS, was an exhortation rather to the enjoyment than the improvement of life.

The inscription on the tomb of Publius Clodius, QUOD COMEDI ET EBIBI TANTUM MEUM EST, seems copied from that of Sardanapalus.[124] Such sentiments, openly professed, revolt our moral taste. The most determined modern votary of luxury and pleasure would not imitate Claudius Secundus, in declaring, HIC SEc.u.m HABET OMNIA. BALNEA VINA VENUS CORRUMPUNT CORPORA NOSTRA. SED VITAM FACIUNT BALNEA VINA VENUS.[125] Public opinion, and, indeed, public authority, now impose restraints on the profession of irreligious or immoral sentiments, which were unknown to the more free-spoken Romans. In truth, at the time to which our inscriptions belong, though there was a national _cultus_, there cannot be said to have been a national religion.

Even when their epitaphs imply a hope of a future existence, it is of that doubtful and hypothetical kind, with the expression of which Tacitus closes his life of Agricola. "_Si_ quis piorum Manibus locus; si, ut sapientibus placet, non c.u.m corpore extinguuntur magnae animae, placide quiescas."

Suscipe nunc conjunx, si quis post funera sensus, Debita sacratis Manibus officia.[126]

The expression of a more confident hope, as in the two following inscriptions, does not exclude the suspicion that there it may be rather poetical imagery than religious faith. Atilia Marcella thus speaks in the name of her deceased husband Fabatus:--

Terrenum corpus, coelestis spiritus in me; Quo repetente sedem suam nunc vivimus illic, Et fruitur superis aeterna in luce Fabatus.[127]

The mother of Theodote thus consoles herself for the loss of her daughter, who was hardly five years old.

Virginis hic tenerae, lector miserere sepultae; Unius huic l.u.s.tri vix fuit acta dies.

O quam longinquae fuerat dignissima vitae Heu! cujus vivit nunc sine fine dolor-- Sola tamen tanti restant solatia luctus Quod tales animae protinus astra petunt.[128]

Upon the whole the evidence, negative even more than positive, of the Roman sepulcral inscriptions, abundantly confirms the testimony of heathen as well as Christian writers, to the absence of any definite and practical belief in a future state, in the three or four first centuries after the Christian aera. Yet few would be able tranquilly to acquiesce in the doctrine of annihilation. They sought in other sources for that a.s.surance which neither religion nor philosophy could afford them. Never was the practice of magic, incantations, necromancy, and mysteries more prevalent than during the period in which Christianity was slowly supplanting the ancient superst.i.tions. It was evident that the fulness of the times was come, and that if the world were not to be divided between the victims of religious imposture and the disciples of Epicurus, light from on high must visit the earth.

Other inscriptions, not properly sepulcral, afford the same proof of the loss of all vital power in the old religion. Among all the religious monuments which the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society contains, there is not one to Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, or any of the great G.o.ds of the popular creed. There is one to Hercules--a hero, not a G.o.d; one to Fortune--a deified personification; one to the Genius of the place--an elegant creation of poetry; one to the fict.i.tious deity of the Emperor. The G.o.ds of the barbarians have evidently dethroned those of Greece and Rome. The legate of a Roman Legion records that he has rebuilt from the foundation a temple of the Egyptian Serapis. A Roman commander must have constructed the cave in which the mystic rites of the Asiatic Mithras were performed. We have an altar to the tutelary G.o.ddess of Brigantia; to Viterineus, a local deity of the neighbourhood of Hadrian's Wall; and, lastly, to the G.o.d Arciacon, wholly unknown but from this unique inscription. It is evident that the popular religion was altogether "a creed outworn." Art had familiarized men with the human representations of their deities; and even by the perfection of its visible and material works had destroyed the belief in their spiritual existence and invisible power. Philosophy had exposed the folly of an anthropomorphic polytheism; poetry and the stage had made the G.o.ds contemptible. Nothing was left which could awaken reverence or love: instead of aiding, the popular religion checked the impulse of the mind to connect the ideas of infinitude and deity. But in the G.o.ds of the barbarous nations, who had remained without art, and without a mythology converting G.o.ds into men, there was something obscure, mysterious, and indefinite; something on which imagination could fasten, and which it could readily invest with supernatural attributes. He who looked on the Apollo of the Belvedere with no other feeling than that he beheld the triumph of the sculptor's art in action and expression, was overcome with a religious awe when he gazed on the unmeaning faces and half-b.e.s.t.i.a.l forms of Egyptian deities. The genius of Rome was tolerant of all religions but the true; a hearty belief in the G.o.ds of his own Pantheon would not have prevented a Roman soldier from doing homage to those of the country in which he was quartered, and seeking thus to gain their favour or avert their displeasure. But this will not account for the extensive diffusion of the worship of Phrygia and Thrace, Persia and Egypt, throughout the Roman empire. It was certainly an indication of a restless longing for something that could supply nourishment to the craving for religious faith which exists in the heart of man, and feeds itself on superst.i.tion when it can find no purer aliment.

Among the sights of modern Rome there is none more interesting than that long gallery of the Vatican called _Delle Lapidi_. On the right-hand wall are encased the sepulcral and other monuments of emperors, consuls and commanders of legions, with their numerous and pompous t.i.tles; inscriptions to the G.o.ds and their priests. The elaborate and tasteful ornaments, the finely-cut letters, the cla.s.sical Latinity--all indicate the rank and station of those by whom or in whose honour they were raised.

On the left are the Christian monuments, chiefly supplied by the Catacombs, which, during the ages of the obscurity and persecution of the Church, served the Christians for sanctuary and cemetery, and even for a temporary dwelling-place. The slabs from their tombs are of coa.r.s.e material--not Parian, or Carrara marble, or Egyptian porphyry; the letters are rudely made, the spelling and the syntax betray the humble rank and imperfect literary attainments of those who supplied them. No mention is made of ample s.p.a.ce allotted to the tomb, no anxious care is expressed to perpetuate the inheritance or provide for a long succession of occupants.

The Christian perhaps fell asleep in the expectation that the second coming of his Lord, to call the tenants of the tomb to judgment, would not be delayed beyond a few years. The Roman of family had three names; the Christian had no _gens_ with which to claim affinity; he was a proletarian, a mere unit amidst the millions. One simple name served to identify him; his sepulcre might even be nameless--a circ.u.mstance of most rare occurrence in regard to Pagan tombs.[129] How strikingly does the contrast confirm the declaration of the Apostle, that "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many n.o.ble were called."[130] But to this contrast there is another side. The heathen monuments represent a decayed and dying superst.i.tion; the Christian, a living and triumphant faith--"the weak things of the world chosen to confound the strong." Their inscriptions speak of resignation, peace, and confidence; their emblems, the Good Shepherd, the Dove, the Anchor, the Ark of Noah, all breathe the same peaceful, humble, and yet hopeful spirit.

The literature of what the Germans call _Epigraphik_, that branch of archaeology which treats of inscriptions, is uncommonly rich--so rich, indeed, as to be embarra.s.sing. The scholars of Italy, with Muratori and Maffei at their head, have been pre-eminent in their labours, which alone would form a library. The inscriptions of Gaul and Helvetia, and of the Roman settlements on the Rhine and Danube, have been ill.u.s.trated in special works. Those of our country may be found in Horsley's "Britannia Ill.u.s.trata," in the later work of Lysons, in Dr. Bruce's "Roman Wall,"

and Stuart's "Caledonia Ill.u.s.trata." The great repository, in which all that was known at the commencement of the eighteenth century has been collected, is the "Inscriptiones Antiquae totius...o...b..s Romani," four volumes, folio, begun by Joseph Scaliger, and enlarged by the successive labours of Gruter and Graevius. These, with the folios of Fabretti and Reinesius, are indispensable in the library of an archaeologist, who devotes himself to the study of inscriptions. The general scholar will find an admirable selection in the work of Orelli, to which a supplemental volume has been lately added by Henzen.[131] The monuments are carefully cla.s.sified; they are ill.u.s.trated, without being overwhelmed with notes, and more care is taken than in any previous collection, to separate the spurious from the genuine inscriptions. Nowhere has mischievous ingenuity been more actively at work than in the forgery of Latin inscriptions, especially in the sixteenth century, when the revival of cla.s.sical studies gave value to every relic of antiquity, and the infancy of archaeological science rendered imposture easy. Among those who have deserved the reprobation of scholars by their forgeries, Pyrrhus Ligorius stands pre-eminent. Ligorio was a Neapolitan by birth, a skilful artist and architect, who, with considerable taste for antiquities, but little knowledge, employed himself in making collections of drawings of ancient buildings, and copies of inscriptions and medals, which, when bound in volumes, he sold at high prices to the munificent patrons of learning who then abounded in Italy. Thirty-five of these volumes, in imperial folio, are in the Royal Library of Turin, and others are, or were, in the Library of the Vatican, and of the princely families of Rome. The temptation of gain was too strong for his honesty, and finding invention easier than research and discovery, he began to forge inscriptions in order to make up his volumes. He is said to have been ignorant of the Latin language, but either this must be a mistake, or he was aided by some one of superior attainments to his own: for many of his forgeries prove the skill with which they were made, by the currency which they have obtained. He has frequently combined fragments of different inscriptions; or taken names from the "Consular Fasti," and inserted them so as to give his patchwork an air of genuineness. There can be no doubt that he really copied many inscriptions; but his bad faith has cast a shade over everything which rests on his sole authority. He is by no means the only one who has brought on himself the malison of antiquaries and historians, by thus corrupting the sources of historical evidence. The greatest caution is necessary in citing an inscription, of which the alleged original no longer exists, if it be not vouched by unexceptionable authority. On the other hand, some reputations which had been tarnished by the suspicion of the forgery of ancient inscriptions, have been vindicated by Time. The name of Cyriac of Ancona was once a bye-word among scholars for a shameless impostor, who had pa.s.sed his own inventions on the world as genuine remains of antiquity. Yet he is now admitted to have acted with good faith,[132] although through haste and ignorance he may have copied inaccurately and been imposed upon by others. It is ascertained that the collection of Spanish inscriptions which has pa.s.sed under his name, and which has given rise to the heaviest imputations against him, was fraudulently put forth and attributed to him.

Inscriptions have also been rejected on grounds of taste by critics, who did not sufficiently reflect, that in an age when all other style had been corrupted by affectation and bombast, the lapidary style could hardly have retained its original character of modesty, conciseness, and simplicity.

Many sepulcral inscriptions, some of which have been quoted in the preceding pages, are preserved in MS. collections, and have been introduced into the "Anthologia Latina," which was begun by Scaliger, and continued by Pithoeus; and attained its most complete form in the hands of Peter Burmann.[133] About 400 sepulcral inscriptions are included in it, extending from the time of the Scipios, even down to the twelfth century after the birth of Christ, and including of course many which are the production of Christian authors. Some of more recent composition have found their way into these collections; but the majority attest their own genuineness by their unrefined phraseology, and their violation of the laws of prosody--faults which no modern scholar would have allowed himself to commit.

ADDENDUM TO PAGE 7, NOTE 2.

As I have not seen the existence of burial clubs among the Romans noticed in any work on Roman antiquities, I will give some extracts from the monument referred to. It was found at Lanuvium, a town of ancient fame for the worship of Juno Sospita, about nineteen miles from Rome on the Via Appia. The inhabitants of this town appear, out of flattery towards the Emperor Hadrian, in whose reign the marble was erected, to have formed themselves into a college for paying divine honours to Diana and Antinous; a singular combination, which shows at once the degraded condition of the people, and the heartless formality of the established religion, which could be prost.i.tuted to such a purpose. The privilege of forming a college--or as we should say a body corporate--was most sparingly conceded, and most jealously restricted under the Emperors, who dreaded all secret a.s.sociations as nurseries of treason. With this primary object of forming a college of the "Cultores Dianae et Antinoi" they combined that of a burial club, not forgetting the festivities which formed so important a part of all acts of religion among the Romans. To prevent disputes, the laws of the a.s.sociation were inscribed on marble, and probably set up in the temple of the two deities.

An amphora of good wine was to be presented to the club by a new member; the sum of one hundred sesterces to be paid as entrance-money, and five _a.s.ses_ per month as subscription. Their meetings were not to take place oftener than once a month. If any one omitted payment for ... months (the marble is here mutilated) no claim could be made, even though he had directed it by will. In case of the death of one who had paid his subscription regularly, three hundred sesterces were allotted for his funeral expenses, out of which, however, fifty were to be set apart for distribution at the cremation of the body. The funeral was to be a walking one. If any one died more than twenty miles from Lanuvium, and his death was announced, three delegates from the college were to repair to the place where he had died to perform his funeral, and render an account to the people. Fraud was to be punished by a fourfold fine. Twenty sesterces each were to be allowed the delegates for travelling expenses, going and returning. If the death had taken place more than twenty miles from Lanuvium, and no notice had been sent, the person who had performed the funeral was to send a sealed certificate, attested by seven Roman citizens, on the production of which the usual sum for the expenses was to be granted. If a member of the college had left a will, only the heir named in it could claim anything. If he died intestate, the _quinquennales_, or magistrates of the municipium, and the people generally, were to direct how the funeral should take place. If any member of the college in the condition of a slave should die, and his body, through the unjust conduct of his master or mistress, should not be given up for burial, his funeral should be celebrated by his bust being carried in procession. No funeral of a suicide was to take place. There are many other rules tending to preserve order and promote good fellowship, but these are all which relate to the burial club. I subjoin extracts from the original. The purpose of the incorporation of the college is thus declared:--

COLLEGIUM SALUTARE DIANae ET ANTINOI CONSt.i.tUTUM EX SENATUS POPULIQUE ROMANI DECRETO QUIBUS COIRE CONVENIRE COLLEGIUMQUE HABERE LICEAT. QUI STIPEM MENSTRUAM CONFERRE VOLEAT IN FUNERA, IN ID COLLEGIUM COEANT, NEQUE SUB SPECIE EJUS COLLEGII NISI SEMEL IN MENSE COEANT, CONFERENDI CAUSA UNDE DEFUNCTI SEPELIANTUR.

TU QUI NOVOS (_NOVUS_) IN HOC COLLEGIO INTRARE VOLES, PRIUS LEGEM PERLEGE ET SIC INTRA, NE POSTMODUM QUERARIS, AUT HEREDI TUO CONTROVERSIAM RELINQUAS.

LEX COLLEGI PLACUIT UNIVERSIS, UT QUISQUIS IN HOC COLLEGIUM INTRARE VOLUERIT, DABIT KAPITULARI NOMINE H.S. (_SESTERTIOS_) C. NUMMOS, ET VINI BONI AMPHORAM, ITEM IN MENSES SING. a.s.sES V.

ITEM PLACUIT UT QUISQUIS MENSIBUS CONTINUIS ________ NON PARIAVERIT, ET EI HUMANITUS ACCIDERIT, EJUS RATIO FUNERIS NON HABEBITUR, ETIAM SI TESTAMENTUM FACTUM HABUERIT.

ITEM PLACUIT UT QUISQUIS EX HOC CORPORE NUMMOS PARIATUS DECESSERIT EUM SEQUENTUR EX ARCA H.S. CCC NUMMI, EX QUA SUMMA DECEDENT EXEQUIARI NOMINE H.S. L. NUMMI, QUI AD ROGUS (_ROGOS_) DIVIDENTUR, EXEQUIae AUTEM PEDIBUS FUNGENTUR.

ITEM PLACUIT QUISQUIS A MUNICIPIO ULTRA MILLIARIA XX DECESSERIT, ET NUNTIATUM FUERIT, EO EXIRE DEBEBUNT ELECTI EX CORPORE NOSTRO HOMINES TRES, QUI FUNERIS EJUS CURAM AGANT ET RATIONEM POPULO REDDERE DEBEBUNT SINE DOLO MALO, ET SI QUIT (_QUID_) IN EIS FRAUDIS CAUSA INVENTUM FUERIT EIS MULTA ESTO QUADRUPLUM QUIBUS (_FUNERATICIUM_) EJUS DABITUR. HOC AMPLIUS VIATICI NOMINE, ULTRO CITRO, SINGULIS H.S. XX NUMMI.

QUOD SI LONGIUS A MUNICIPIO SUPRA MILLIARIA XX DECESSERIT ET NUNTIARI NON POTUERIT, TUM IS QUI EUM FUNERAVERIT TESTATOR REM TABULIS SIGNATIS SIGILLIS CIVIUM ROMANORUM VII ET PROBATA CAUSA FUNERATICIUM EJUS SATISDATO.

NEQUE PATRONO NEQUE PATRONae NEQUE DOMINO NEQUE DOMINae NEQUE CREDITORI EX HOC COLLEGIO ULLA PEt.i.tIO ESTO NISI SI QUIS TESTAMENTO HERES NOMINATUS ERIT. SI QUIS INTESTATUS DECESSERIT IS ARBITRIO QUINQUENNALIUM ET POPULI FUNERABITUR.

ITEM PLACUIT QUISQUIS EX HOC COLLEGIO SERVUS DEFUNCTUS FUERIT, ET CORPUS EJUS A DOMINO DOMINAVE INIQUITATE SEPULTURae DATUM NON FUERIT, NEQUE TABELLAS FECERIT, EI FUNUS IMAGINARIUM FIET.

ITEM PLACUIT QUISQUIS EX QUAc.u.mQUE CAUSA MORTEM SIBI ADSCIVERIT EJUS RATIO FUNERIS NON HABEBITUR.

ITEM PLACUIT UT QUISQUIS SERVUS EX HOC COLLEGIO LIBER FACTUS FUERIT, IS DARE DEBEBIT VINI BONI AMPHORAM.

This curious doc.u.ment affords an additional proof how much ancient life is found to resemble the modern, when we gain an insight into its interior through the medium of its monuments. By this means inst.i.tutions and customs which have been thought peculiar to recent or mediaeval times may be traced upwards, through Rome and Greece, even to the fountains of civilization in Egypt and the East.

THE END.