THE ROSE CEREMONIES, ETC. 



171 



care of their ashes, should meet together every year, on 

 the anniversary of their death, and dine near their tomb, 

 scattering roses about the place. This custom is attested 

 by several stories of ancient Roman tombs. One with an 

 ancient inscription was found at Ravenna, and others in 

 some other parts of Italy. 



D'Orbessan, in his " Essal sur les Hoses^'^^ mentions hav- 

 ing seen, at Torcello, a city about five miles from Venice, 

 an inscription of this kind, mentioning a donation made 

 by an emancipated slave to the assembly of the Centum^ 

 consisting of gardens and a building to be employed in 

 celebrating his obsequies and those of his master. It re- 

 quested tliat roses should not be spared, and that food 

 should be then distributed in abundance. Generally, the 

 donation made on condition of covering the funeral monu- 

 ment with roses Avas transferred to another, if that con- 

 dition was not fulfilled. Sometimes the most terrible 

 maledictions threatened those who dared to violate these 

 sacred gardens. That which proves how frequent among 

 the Romans was this custom of ornamenting tombs with 

 roses is, that those who were not rich enough to make 

 such bequests often directed to be engraved upon the 

 stone which covered their remains a request to the passers- 

 by to scatter roses upon their tomb. Some of these stones 

 still exist, with the following inscription : " Sparge^ pre- 

 cor^ Hosas supra mea busta^ viator, '^'^ It was, perhaps, 

 because they compared the short duration of human life 

 to the quick fading existence of the Rose, that this flower 

 was devoted to the burial-place of the dead ; and there 

 can certainly be chosen no more beautiful emblem of this 

 transitory state of existence. This supposition is some- 

 what strengthened by the following passage from Jerome, 

 one of the early Christian fathers : 



"The ancients scattered roses over the urns of the deceased, and in 

 their -wills ordered that these flowers should adorn their graves, and 

 should be renewed every year. It was also the custom for husbands to 



