For the Romans, death meant contamination and thus obligated the living to carry out rituals of purification and expiation. Moreover, it was thought that depriving a body of proper burial would have negative repercussions on the destiny of the soul of the deceased.
Until the first century A.D., the custom was to cremate the dead and gather their ashes in urns which were walled inside the tombs or buried in the cemetery. The burial spot was marked by a symbol. A coin was placed in the urn to pay Charon for the soul’s passage to the underworld. A conduit connected the ground with the urn, so that the libations poured out during funeral ceremonies could reach the deceased.
After the funeral and burial, rites of purification and a banquet were held by the tomb. Mourning lasted nine days. At the end of this period, offerings were brought to the deceased, followed by another funeral banquet.
A period was set aside for the commemoration of the dead, called the Parentàlia, from February 13th to 21st, during which every family honored their parents and other relatives. The last day was the Feràlia, devoted to public ceremonies.
Roman law prescribed that the cemeteries be located outside the city walls. The tombs were placed on either side of the roads leading out of the city gates.
The funerary monuments perpetuated the memory of the dead and expressed their differences in rank.
The appearance of the necropolises was in large measure determined by the tombs of the rich and the fairly well-to-do. They would buy a piece of land on which to build their funerary monument, or would buy a tomb already part of a series made by a builder.
Numerous inscriptions have been discovered containing specific indications of precautions taken to prevent the profanation of the tombs. Two of the major concerns of tomb owners was unlawful occupation and insult to those buried there.
