BOOK VII.] History of Nature. 247 



Earth. But after they understood that the Bodies of the 

 Men slain in the distant Wars were taken up out of the Earth 

 again, it was appointed to Burn them. And yet many Fami- 

 lies kept still to the old Customs: as in the House of the 

 Cornelii no one is reported to have been burnt before L. 

 Sylla, the Dictator. And he willed it through dread that he 

 should be so served as he had done by C. Marius, whose 

 Corpse he had caused to be digged up. (In Latin) he is said 

 to be Sepultus, who is bestowed in any way ; but Humatus 

 signified! that he is covered with the Earth. 



CHAPTER LV. 

 Of the Soul, or the Manes. 1 



AFTER Sepulture there is very great Obscurity regarding 

 the Manes ; but this is generally held, that in whatever Con- 

 familiarly spoken of by Homer. That it was more ancient among the 

 Romans than is represented by Pliny appears from Ovid ; who (" Fasti," 

 c. 4) speaks of its having been practised on the body of Remus, the bro- 

 ther of Romulus. The same is also negatively proved by Nutna, who 

 ordered that his body should not be burned ; and by the laws of the 

 Twelve Tables, regulations were instituted concerning it : chiefly to pre- 

 vent extravagant expense in the ceremony. The general fashion of 

 burning, in preference to interment, succeeded to the example set by 

 Sylla ; after whose day it was practised even by people of inferior orders : 

 but neither burning nor burial were allowed by law within the bounds 

 of the city. An ordinance of Numa forbade that a woman who died in 

 childbirth should be buried, until the child was taken from her ; and the 

 usual ceremonies were to be omitted when the person had been killed by 

 lightning. Wern. Club. 



1 " Manes " was a general term expressive of the souls of men after 

 they were separated from the body. They were supposed to be arranged 

 in classes, according to their moral condition : for which see a note, 

 vol. i. p. 24. But however situated, a kind of deityship was supposed to 

 attach itself to them : and hence they were addressed as Dii Manes. 

 Such was the popular opinion, as referred to by Virgil, Ovid, and other 

 writers who reflected the public mind ; but it was scarcely an article of 

 faith among philosophers and the higher classes, whose opinions fluctuated 

 according to circumstances. As a motive to moral obligation and respon- 

 sibility it was exceedingly feeble. 



Pliny's observation, " that in whatever condition they were before 



