niche in the chamber of the monument.

[Illustration: FIG. 123.--COLUMBARIUM.]

Now and then there were more magnificent obsequies than those of
Silius. A "public" funeral might be decreed to a man who had deserved
conspicuously well of the state. On such an occasion the crier would
go round, calling "Oyez, come all who choose to the funeral of
So-and-So." The invitation meant, not merely participation in a solemn
procession, but also in the funeral feast, and probably an exhibition
of gladiators. On the other hand the majority of burials were
naturally of a far more simple and inexpensive kind. The poor could
not afford to use unguents and keep their dead till the third day;
they could not afford real cypress trees, but must use cheaper
substitutes, if anything at all. They could not afford all the
processionists and paraphernalia of the undertaker, but must be
satisfied with four commonplace bearers, who hurried away the corpse
in the evening, not on a couch but in a cheap box, and carried it out
to the common necropolis beyond the Esquiline Gate. Seldom could they
afford the fuel to burn the body, and in many cases it must simply be
thrown into a pit roughly dug and there left without monument. To
secure more respect and decency there were many burial clubs, whether
connected with the trade-guilds or not, and these procured a joint
tomb of the kind known as a "dovecote," or columbarium, from the
resemblance of its niches to so many pigeon-holes. These cooperative
sepulchres were underground vaults, and it is perhaps hardly necessary
to point out their direct relation to the Christian catacombs. Similar
tombs were sometimes used by the great Roman families for the remains
of the freedmen and slaves of their house.

[Illustration: FIG. 124.--TEMPLE OF JUPITER ON THE CAPITOL (Platform
omitted).]

INDEX

Actors, contempt for, 268
Advertisements, 257
Aemilia, Basilica, 108
Africa, 45
Age, coming of, 332
Agriculture, implements of, 252
Alexander the Great, 34
Alexandria, 14, 25, 34, 44
Amphitheatres, 280
performances, 282
Amulets, 318
Andalusia, 36
Antioch, 14, 43
Appian Way, 22, 118
Aqueducts, 136
Architecture, 112, 422-424
Argiletum, the, 108
Aristocrat, clients of, 206
daily life of, 193
dress of, 196
as pleader in law-courts, 216
social duties of, 217
Army, the, 12, 52, 338-358
artillery, 356
auxiliaries, 352
camping arrangements, 349
cavalry, 339, 353, 356
composit