Chap. 55.] BURIAL. 217 



on the other hand, there are innumerable cases also of unfortu- 

 nate ends. L. Domitius, 34 a member of a most illustrious family, 

 having been conquered at Massilia by Caesar, and taken prisoner 

 by him at Corfmium, being weary of life, took poison ; but, im- 

 mediately after, he used every possible exertion to prolong his 

 life. We find it stated in our Annals, that Felix, a charioteer 

 of the red party, 35 being placed on the funeral pile, some one 

 of the number of his admirers threw himself upon the pile ; a 

 most silly piece of conduct. Lest, however, this circumstance 

 might be attributed to the great excellence of the dead man 

 in his art, and so redound to his glory, the other parties all 

 declared that he had been overpowered by the strength of the 

 perfumes. Not long ago, M. Lepidus, a man of very noble 

 birth, who died, as I have stated above, 36 of chagrin caused by 

 his divorce, was hurled from the funeral pile by the violence 

 of the flames, and in consequence of the heat, could not be re- 

 placed upon it ; in consequence of which, his naked body was 

 burnt with some other pieces of brushwood, in the vicinity of 

 the pile. 



CHAP. 55. (54.) BTJEIAL. 



The burning of the body after death, among the Komans, is 

 not a very ancient usage ; for formerly, they interred it. 37 After 

 it had been ascertained, however, in the foreign wars, that 

 bodies which had been buried were sometimes disinterred, the 

 custom of burning them was adopted. Many families, how- 



34 The great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero. We have a reference 

 to his death by Seneca, De Benef. B. iii. c. 24, and a more full account of 

 it by Suetonius, Life of Nero, c. 2.-B. 



35 The charioteers at Rome were divided into four companies, or " fac- 

 tiones," each distinguished by a colour, representing the season of the 

 year. These colours were green for the spring, red for the summer, azure 

 for autumn, and white for the winter. Domitian afterwards increased 

 them to six, adding the golden and the purple. The most ardent party 

 spirit prevailed among them, and the interest in their success extended to 

 all classes and both sexes. 



36 In the thirty-sixth Chapter of this Book. B. 



37 It would appear, from Dalechamps and Hardouin, that this statement, 

 respecting the period when the custom of burning the body after death 

 was first adopted by the Romans, is incorrect, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 219. 

 There is much uncertainty as to its origin, and the source from which they 

 borrowed it. We learn from Macrobius, that the practice was discontinued 

 in his time, i. <?. in the fourth century after Christ. B. 



