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Funeral lights in Roman sepulchral monuments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Extract
Among the fragments of the tomb of the Haterii, discovered in 1848 on the Via Labicana, some three miles from Rome, and now in the Lateran Museum, are two scenes in low relief illustrating the burial. The first of these (plate IX) represents a very rare, if not unique, subject—the lying-in-state, as we should call it, in the atrium of the house. Confining our attention to the details which concern our immediate purpose, we see that the central object is the corpse of a lady extended on a high bed or bier, at the corners of which burn four tall torches standing on the ground, while at the head and foot is a lighted oil lamp on a candelabrum of rather smaller dimensions. Below, at either of the two front corners of the bier, is a small flaming vessel, probably the ‘acerra’ which Festus says was used for burning incense before the dead. In the personages who assist at the scene we may recognise the relations, the ‘praeficae’ or hired mourners, and various attendants, one of whom is apparently laying a wreath on the corpse, which is already crowned, while another on the right is about to throw more incense on to the ‘acerra.’
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References
page 149 note 1 Brunn in Annali, xxi (1849), p. 363 ff.; Monumenti, v, 6 ff. cf. Wickhoff-Strong, Roman Art, p. 49, and note quoting Hülsen to the effect that ‘there can be no doubt that the reliefs belong to the end of the first century’ [A.D.].
page 149 note 2 Lateran, Museo Profano, room x, no. 690. Benndorf-Schoene, Die Antiken Bildwerke des Lateranensischen Museums, p. 221; Helbig, , Führer (3rd ed.), ii, 1192Google Scholar; Annali, l.c. p. 365.
page 149 note 3 de Signif. Verb. p. 17 (Lindsay) : ‘Acerra ara quae ante mortuum poni solebat, in qua odores incendebant.’
page 149 note 4 Mau in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Enc. iii, 348 (Bestattung), points out that the crowning of the dead with wreaths is proved for the imperial age by Tertullian, de Corona, 10 : ‘mortuorum est ita coronari’; and Minucius Felix, Oct. 12 : ‘nec mortuos coronamus’ (of the Christian usage). Cic. de Leg. ii, 60, shows that this was an old Roman custom.
page 149 note 5 In addition to the references given above, see A. Mau, Bestattung, in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Enc., iii, p. 349Google Scholar (who describes the torches as torch-like thymiateria); E. Cuq, Funus in Saglio, Dict. ii, p. 1389Google Scholar, fig. 3360; Baumeister, Denkm. i, fig. 218, and p. 240; Marquardt, —Mau-Henry, , Vie Privée des Romains, i, p. 406Google Scholar, note 6.
page 149 note 6 The mediaeval usage is thus described by Rock, , Church of our Fathers (ed. Hart, and Frere, ), ii, p. 382Google Scholar. When the corpse was brought into church ‘at its four corners were put large wax tapers.’ (Note 49) ‘Such is often the way a funeral is to be found figured in old illuminated manuscripts.’ cf. iii, p. 71 ff. and notes for instances.
page 150 note 1 e.g. British Museum, Catalogue of Reliefs, 2315; Ancient Marbles, v, pl. 3, fig. 5.
page 150 note 2 Mrs Strong in J.R.S. iv (1914), p. 153, and Apotheosis and After Life, p. 175 and pl. xxiii.
page 150 note 3 Pauly-Wissowa, iii, p. 348.
page 150 note 4 Denkm. i, p. 309, fig. 325.
page 150 note 5 E. Cuq in Saglio, ii, p. 1387 (funus).
page 151 note 1 Saglio, loc. cit. fig. 3358 (in the Vicolo del Piombo).
page 151 note 2 Dio Cass. lvi, 34, 42 (Augustus); lxxiv, 4 (Pertinax).
page 151 note 3 iv, 2.
page 152 note 1 Mr. G. F. Hill (to whom I am indebted for the selection of the coins in fig. 37, and for the casts taken from specimens in the British Museum) informs me that these imperial pyres with torches first appear on ‘consecratio’ coins (aurei, denarii, sestertii) of the Antonine period, and that, though the type of the pyre can be traced down to Constantius Chlorus, the coins of Maesa seem to be the latest on which the torches figure. He gives the following list (made under the present somewhat limited conditions of investigation) of coins on which they occur:
page 152 note 2 Noticed by Eckhel, , Doctr. Num. viii, p. 468Google Scholar.
page 153 note 1 iv, 66i : (The coffin was set) βάθρων ἐϕ' ὑψηλῶν ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ πάντων προϕέροντι τῶν βασιλείων οἴκῳ. Φῶτά τ' ἐϕάψαντες κύκλῳ ἐπὶ σκευῶν χρυσῶν θαυμαστὸν θέαμα τοῖς ὁρῶσι παρεῖχον.
page 153 note 2 The big candlesticks round the coffins of Turkish sultans in their tombs may well be derived from Byzantine imperial usage.
page 153 note 3 Armellini, Chiese di Roma (2nd ed.), p. 860; Duchesne, Lib. Pont. i, p. 196; Rivoira, Lombardic Architecture, i, p. 11, ii, p. 25.
page 153 note 4 Ammianus Marc, xxi, 1, 5 : ‘in suburbano viae Nomentanae.’
page 153 note 5 Helbig, i, 309. The one with the vintage scenes.
page 153 note 6 Cose gentilesche, p. 299; Lanciani, , Storia degli Scavi, i, p. 33Google Scholar.
page 153 note 7 Martinelli, , Roma ex ethnica sacra (Rome, 1653), p. 53Google Scholar.
page 153 note 8 De sacris aedificiis, p. 134.
page 153 note 9 Helbig, i, 341, 342, 353, 354.
page 153 note 10 e.g. the tomb of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (d. 1439), in the Beauchamp chapel, Warwick.
page 155 note 1 The two types now in the Vatican are illustrated by Ciampini, t. xxix, figs. 3 and 4; Visconti, Mus. Pio-Cl. vii, pp. 244, 245; Reinach, , Rép. de Reliefs, iii, pp. 416, 417Google Scholar. Lists of candelabra-bases of similar character are given by Benndorf-Schoene p. 326; Hauser, Neu-Attische Reliefs, p. 109 f. All these triangular bases appear to have rams' heads at the upper angles and sphinxes at the lower, but the reliefs on the faces are either (a) Erotes ending in arabesques and holding fruit or flowers (the five examples in Rome are of this type); or (b) flying Erotes carrying the arms of Ares, illustrated by the British Museum base (Cat. 2509; Marbles, i, pl. 6).
page 155 note 2 W. Altmann, Die römischen Grabaltäre der Kaiserzeit, ch. x, where fourteen are described; but the list might be increased.
page 155 note 3 Macchioro, V., Il Simbolismo nelle figurazioni sepolcrali Romane (Memorie della R. Accademia di Archeologia di Napoli, i, 1908), pp. 36, 129Google Scholar.
page 155 note 4 Altmann, III, and t. i and ii. He is described as ‘divae Aug(ustae) l(iberti).’
page 155 note 5 The descriptions in Michaelis (Anc. Marb.) of cippi at Broadlands (30, p. 225) and Holkham (99, P. 317) suggest four candelabra in either case, but I have ascertained that this is not so.
page 155 note 6 e.g. Benndorf-Schoene, 189 = Altmann, 112; Florence, Uffizi, 1765 = Altmann, 116 (who does not mention the torches).
page 155 note 7 e.g. Michaelis, p. 225 (Broadlands, 30).
page 155 note 8 Altmann, 128 (Louvre), 172 (Vatican, Amelung, t. 84, p. 780 : 686a), 187 (Pisa).
page 156 note 1 Brit. Mus. 2379 (Marb. v, pl. 1, 4) = Altmann, 106; Michaelis, p. 378 (Ince-Blundell, 231).
page 156 note 2 Benndorf-Schoene, 260b.
page 156 note 3 Altmann, 109.
page 156 note 4 Brit. Mus. 2377 (Marb. v, pl. II, 4); Michaelis, p. 406 (Ince-Blundell, 331).
page 157 note 1 Vatican, Gall. Lap. xxix, 126 (Amelung, i, p. 257, who describes the objects as ‘thymiateria’; Reinach, Rep. iii, p. 415Google Scholar).
page 157 note 2 Il Simbolismo, p. 37. Macchioro does not discuss the meaning of light-holders on sepulchral monuments, perhaps because they are not so much symbolical as representative.
page 157 note 3 The following instances are taken from Marquardt and other well-known books of reference.
page 157 note 4 C.I.L. xi, 20, l. 23; Dessau, i, 139, l. 24; Wilmanns, 883, i, l. 27.
page 157 note 5 C.I.L. vi, 10248.
page 157 note 6 C.I.L. ii, 2102.
page 157 note 7 C.I.L. x, 633; Bücheler, Carm. Epigr. 1308. Mr. G. F. Hill suggests that the object on the reverse of the coins apparently referring to Gaius Caesar (Brit. Mus. Cat. ii, p. 42, 4468) may be a candelabrum in connexion with his death. It has hitherto been described as an incense-altar (Hill, Historical Reman Coins, 107, p. 165, pl. xv).
page 157 note 8 C.I.L. viii, 9052.
page 157 note 9 The subject of lamps and candelabra found in tombs and graves would require a separate investigation. It is touched upon in Marquardt, Vie privée, i, p. 430.
page 159 note 1 Altmann, 284, fig. 179; Montfaucon, v, pl. 39; C.I.L. xiv, 2717. One would think that here, as on the cippi where both torches and candelabra occur combined or separately, some distinction between them must be intended. One might fancy, for instance, that the torches stood for the transitory lights used at the funeral, and the candelabra for the more permanent cult-lights of the tomb. On the other hand, in the Pisan cult of the dead Caesars (see above p. 157) the cereus and fax are mentioned as alternative offerings.
page 159 note 2 Altmann, 175, 176; Benndorf-Schoene, 305b, 310; Michaelis, p. 515 (Marbury, 43). Altmann, 165, fig. 119, shows the variety of a torch flanked by sphinxes.
page 159 note 3 Altmann, 46, fig. 70.
page 159 note 4 Altmann, 19, etc.
page 159 note 5 Altmann, p. 274.
page 159 note 6 C.I.L. vi, 19150; Benndorf-Schoene, 355; Altmann, p. 27, fig. 18.
page 159 note 7 Altmann, p. 24; C.I.L. vi, 2243. It is known from a drawing in the Codex Pighianus.
page 159 note 8 Benndorf-Schoene, 346; Wickhoff, Roman Art, p. 50, pl. VII and VII; Reinach, Rep. iii, p. 287Google Scholar.
page 159 note 9 Benndorf-Schoene, 344; Helbig, ii, 1194; Wickhoff, Roman Art, fig. 20; Reinach, Rép. iii., p. 285Google Scholar.
page 160 note 1 Michaelis, Oxford, 224, 225, 226, where ‘Syracuse’ is an error as Prof. P. Gardner informs me.
page 160 note 2 2606, 2607. The poppy-heads on 2606 have a definite funerary meaning. Another pair of pilasters (2666, 2667) are of similar character.
page 160 note 3 2208; Marbles, ii, pl. II.
page 160 note 4 Marquardt-Brissaud, , Le Culte chez les Romains, i, p. 200, p. 396Google Scholar.
page 160 note 5 Visconti, , Museo Pio-Clementino, tav. A, iv, 9, and p. 43Google Scholar.
page 161 note 1 Brunn (l. c. p. 402) compares the niche flanked by columns at the end of the cella of the tomb near the Ponte Nomentano.
page 161 note 2 Silvae, v, i, 231 ff. I adopt Prof. Davies's text in Postgate's Corpus. Brunn, l. c. p. 404.
page 161 note 3 For effigies of the deceased under the form of a deity see Altmann, p. 282, Macchioro, p. 125.
page 161 note 4 See Leclercq's article Candélabre in Cabrol, , Dictionnaire d' Archéologie Chrétienne, vol. ii, pt. 2Google Scholar, col. 1834 ff.
page 161 note 5 Cabrol, Dict. vol. i, col. 721Google Scholar, fig. 148; Muñoz, L' art byzantin à l' exposition de Grottaferrata, p. 152, Lowrie, Christian art and archaeology, fig. 161.
page 162 note 1 An almost exact pagan parallel is the cippus of Hateria Superba (Florence, Uffizi. Altmann, 109; Montfaucon, v, pl. 40, 2) showing a girl standing between a pair of torches, as tall as herself, while two Cupids hold a wreath above her head.
page 162 note 2 Bertoli, , Antichità di Aquileia (Venice, 1739), p. 334Google Scholar, cccclxxxiv; C.I.L. v, 1673. Apparently now in the museum at Aquileia.
page 162 note 3 Mansi, Concilia, ii, col. 11, can. 34: ‘cereos per diem placuit in coemeterio non incendi: inquietandi enim spiritus sanctorum non sunt.’
page 162 note 4 Gallery of Inscriptions, xiv, 44 (‘ex agro Verano”). Cabrol, Dict. (Chandelier), vol. iii, col. 211; Rossi, De, Mus. Epigr. t. XV, n. 44Google Scholar; Garrucci, , Storia, vi, t. 485Google Scholar.
page 163 note 1 The latest treatment of this subject is in Eitrem's, S.Opferritus und Voropfer der Griechen und Römer (Kristiania, 1915), esp. pp. 142, 153 ffGoogle Scholar.
page 163 note 2 Macchioro, p. 125. Mrs. Strong, Apotheosis and After Life, lect. iii.
page 164 note 1 I have to thank Mrs. Strong for much help in writing this paper, and also Messrs. Dalton, Hill, and A. H. Smith of the British Museum, and Prof. Gardner of Oxford, for information or permissions to reproduce objects in their custody.