The Roman undertakers

A very rich source of information about the undertakers are two inscriptions with copies of laws, usually referred to as leges libitinariae (Bove 1966 and 1967; AE 1971, 88; 1995, 307; 1996, 414; 2003, 336). They were found in Cumae and Puteoli. The one from Cumae is the less informative. It was found as fairly recently reused material, near a city-gate and the amphitheatre. The (marble) inscription from Puteoli was found in 1956, at a site where the forum may have been. This inscription does not seem to have been reused. It has holes used for attaching it to a wall. The right part of the inscription has been preserved, in three columns. Roughly the first three-quarters of each line in the first column is missing. Roughly a quarter to a half at the end of each line of the third column is missing (Camodeca 2004). Several datings have been suggested, from the first century BC to the Julio-Claudian period. Below is my English translation of part of the text (Latin text according to Hinard, a slightly different text in Bodel 1994 and Libitina e dintorni).

	[De publi?]co Libitin[ae]	[The public service of?] the Libitina
Col. I, 32	[Si quis cadaver proieceri]t, tum is mancipi	[If someone has thrown out a corpse], then to the contractor
Col II, 1	sociove eius, quotienscumq(ue) proiecer(it) in sing(ula) cadavera HS LX n(ummum) d(amnas) e(sto) d(are), deq(ue) ea re magistrat(us) recipe	or his associate a fine must be paid of 60 sesterces for each abandoned corpse, per corpse, and about this incident the magistrate
2	ratorium iudicium e lege colon(iae) cogito.	will start a judicial procedure with the board of the recoverers, according to the Law of the Colony.
3	Oper(ae), quae ad eam r(em) praeparat(ae) er(unt), ne intra turrem ubi hodie lucus est Libit(inae) habitent laventurve ab h(ora) I	The workers who will have been trained for this work are not allowed to reside or wash themselves in the tower where today the grove of Libitina is situated, from the first hour
4	noctis, neve veniant in oppid(um) nisi mortui tollend(i) conlocand(i)ve aut supplic(ii) sumend(i) c(ausa), dum ita	of the night, and they are not allowed to enter the city, except for carrying away or laying out in state a deceased person, and for inflicting punishment, provided that
5	quis eor(um) veniat quotiens oppid(um) intrab(it) in oppid(o)ve erit ut pilleum color(ium) in capit(e) habeat, et	each of them, whenever he enters the city or is inside the city, does not go there without the multi-coloured cap on his head, and
6	dum ne quis eor(um) maior ann(orum) L minorve ann(orum) XX sit neve u[at]i(us) neve luscus neve manc(us) neve clodus	provided that not one of them is older than 50 or younger than 20 years, and provided that not one of them is bowlegged, one-eyed, maimed, limping,
7	neve caec[us] neve stigmat(ibus) inscript(us) sit, et dum ne pauciores manceps oper(as) habeat quam XXXII	blind, carrying tattoos, and provided that the contractor does not have fewer than 32 workmen.
8	Qui supplic(ium) de ser(vo) servave privatim sumer(e) volet, uti is sumi volet ita supplic(ium) sumet, si in cruc(em)	If someone, privately, wants to inflict punishment on a male or female slave, then the punishment must be inflicted in the way that has been asked for, so that if he has asked for the yoke and the cross,
9	patibul(atum) agere volet, redempt(or) asser(es) vincul(a) restes verberatorib(us) et verberator(es) praeber(e) d(ebeto), et	the contractor must provide the beams, the fetters, the whips for the floggers, and the floggers, and
10	quisq(uis) supplic(ium) sumet pro oper(is) sing(ulis) quae patibul(um) ferunt verberatorib(us)q(ue) item carnif(ici) HS IIII d(are) d(ebeto)	each person asking for inflicting punishment must pay 4 sesterces for each worker carrying the yoke, and for each flogger, and likewise for the executioner.
11	Quot(iens) supplic(ium) magistrat(us) public(e) sumet, ita imperat(o); quotienscumq(ue) imperat(um) er(it), praestu esse su-	For each public punishment the magistrate must give the appropriate orders. Each time the orders have been given the contractor must guarantee
12	p(p)licium sumer(e) cruces statuere clavos pecem ceram candel(as) quaeq(ue) ad eas res opus erunt red(emptor)	that the punishment will be inflicted, that the crosses will be erected, that there will be nails, pitch, wax, candles, and everything that is needed,
13	gratis praest(are) d(ebeto); item si u[n]co extrahere iussus erit, oper(is) russat(is) id cadaver ubi plura	free of charge. Furthermore, if the order has been given to drag the body away with a hook, the contractor must guarantee that the corpse will be dragged
14	cadavera erunt cum tintinnabulo extrahere debebit.	to the place where many corpses will be by workers clothed in red, using a signal-bell.
15	Quot quisq(uis) ex is rebus, quas h(ac) l(ege) utiq(ue) praeber(e) o(portebit), praeberi volet, denuntiat(o) denuntiat(um)ve cura-	Each time that someone wishes the services to be delivered, which the contractor is obliged to deliver in any case according to this law, he must declare or ensure that is declared,
16	to manc(ipi) eius public(i) sociove eius eive ad q(uem) e(a) r(es) q(ua) d(e) a(gitur) p(ertinet), aut s(i) is praesens non erit, ad eum loc(um)	to the contractor of this public service or to his associate or to the person who is responsible for this, or, in case that he will not be present, at the place
17	quem libitinae exsercend(ae) gratia conduct(um) constitut(um)ve habeb(it), quo die, quoq(ue) loc(o) quam	that the contractor has hired or established to exercise the libitina, the day, the place and the services
18	que r(em) ei praeberi volet, et si ita denuntiat(um) erit, tum is manc(eps) sociusve eius isve ad q(uem) e(a) r(es) q(ua) d(e) [a(gitur)]	that he wishes to be arranged. And when it will have been declared in this way, then the contractor or his associate or the person who is responsible for this,
19	p(ertinet), ei qui primum denuntaver(it) et deinceps reliquis, ut quisq(ue) denuntiaver(it), nisi si funus	to the person who was the first to declare and then to the others, in the order of the declarations, unless the funeral
20	decurion(is) funusve acervom denuntiat(um) erit, cui prima curand(a) erint, reliquor(um) autem fu-	of a member of the city council or the funeral of someone who died prematurely has been declared, which must be given priority, keeping
21	nerum ordo servand(us), omnes res quae ex h(ac) l(ege) praestand(ae) erunt mitter(e) praeber(e)que quae praeb(enda erunt debeto).	the order of the other funerals, must send everything that he is responsible for according to this law and provide what must be provided.
22	Suspendiosum cum denuntiat(um) erit ead(em) hora is solvend(um) tollend(um) curato, item servom	When one that has hanged himself is declared, he must ensure that the body is cut loose and carried off in the same hour. Also when the death of a male or
23	servamve si ante h(oram) X diei denuntiat(um) erit ead die tollend(um) curato, si post X poster(a) d(ie) a(nte) h(oram) II.	female slave is declared before the 10th hour, he must ensure that the body is carried off on the same day, if it is declared after the 10th hour on the next day, before the 2nd hour.
Col. III, 21	Man[ceps han]c legem propositam habeto eo loco quem eius r[ei exsercend(ae)]	The contractor must put this law on display in the place that he has hired or established to exercise the service,
22	gr[atia cond]uct(um) constitutum habebit u(nde) d(e) p(lano) r(ecte) l(egi) p(ossit).	where it can be read easily and correctly.

The inscription mentions the Lucus Libitinae or Grove of Libitina as a place of activity of the undertakers in Puteoli. It must have been a copy of the Lucus Libitinae in Rome, that has been discussed extensively by Bodel (Bodel 1994). He explains that Libitina was the goddess of funerals. In Rome she had a grove, the Lucus Libitinae, but as far as we know she had no temple, no cult, no worshippers. The grove was probably located outside the Esquiline gate. An inscription referring to the maintenance of public areas may be related to the undertakers (CIL VI, 3823). It was found just outside the Porta Esquilina, near the Arch of Gallienus and the church of San Vito in Macello.

The Arch of Gallienus at the spot of the Porta Esquilina (between Santa Maria Maggiore and Piazza Vittorio Emanuele).
Photo: Wikimedia, Sailko.

Nearby statues of flute-players and an inscription (CIL VI, 3877) mentioning the association of flute-players (collegium tibicinum) was found. There is a comparandum from Egypt, where workers in the funerary trade are referred to as "dwellers outside the gates" (Youtie 1940, 650-657). The grove was located near a large public burial ground, to the south of today's Stazione Termini. Here the bodies of the poor and of slaves were thrown in open pits called puticuli. Approximately 75 such pits from the republican period were found in the area by Rodolfo Lanciani, in the late 19th century. They measured about four by four metres, and were ten metres deep. Animal and human bones were found. A mass grave with perhaps as much as 24.000 bodies was found nearby.

Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries by Rodolfo Lanciani Boston and New York, 1898 From: CHAPTER III. THE SANITARY CONDITIONS OF ANCIENT ROME The Esquiline cemetery was divided into two sections: one for the artisans who could afford to be buried apart in Columbaria, containing a certain number of cinerary urns; one for the slaves, beggars, prisoners, and others, who were thrown in revolting confusion into common pits or fosses. This latter section covered an area one thousand feet long, and thirty deep, and contained many hundred puticuli or vaults, twelve feet square, thirty deep, of which I have brought to light and examined about seventy-five. In many cases the contents of each vault were reduced to a uniform mass of black, viscid, pestilent, unctuous matter; in a few cases the bones could in a measure be singled out and identified. The reader will hardly believe me when I say that men and beasts, bodies and carcasses, and any kind of unmentionable refuse of the town were heaped up in those dens. Fancy what must have been the condition of this hellish district in times of pestilence, what the mouths of the crypts must have been kept wide open the whole day! But there is something still worse. Every visitor to Rome knows the great fortification which protected the city on the east side, called the Agger or embankment of Servius Tullius, from the king who raised it. This fortification, more than one mile long, comprised a ditch or moat one hundred feet wide and thirty deep, with ramparts one hundred feet wide and thirty high, supported and strengthened on the outside by a lofty battlemented wall. It seems that under the republican rule, and on the occasion of a stupendous mortality, - to use the words of Livy, - the portion of the huge moat which skirted the cemetery of the Esquiline was filled with corpses, thrown in as if they were carrion, until the level of the embankment was reached. The discovery of these revolting particulars took place in 1876, under the circumstances which I am going to relate. In building the foundations of a house at the corner of Via Carlo-Alberto and Via Mazzini, the architect, deceived by the presence of a solid bed of tufa on the northern half of the building-ground, began to lay his masonry and fill up the trenches to the uniform depth of twelve feet below the level of the street. All of a sudden the southern portion of the ground gave way, and one half of the area fell through into a chasm thirty feet deep. On careful examination of the circumstances of the catastrophe, it was ascertained that, whereas the northern half of the foundations rested on the solid embankment or Agger of Servius Tullius, the southern half had been laid on the site of the ditch, filled up with thousands upon thousands of corpses, which, when brought in contact with the air after twenty centuries, had crumbled into dust or nothing, leaving open a huge chasm. According to measurements which I took at the time, this mass of human remains was, at least, one hundred and sixty feet long, one hundred wide, and thirty deep. Giving to each corpse an average space of twenty cubic feet, which is more than sufficient, there were not less than twenty-four thousand bodies in a comparatively small space.

The inscriptions from Puteoli and Cumae show that the Lucus Libitinae was introduced in other cities in Italy. In Puteoli it must have been situated outside the city, because the ordinary workers who used it were not allowed to enter the city, except for funerals. It had been installed in a tower, which cannot have been a tower of the city-wall, because that formed part of the city. According to Hinard it may have been a villa suburbana. He points out that in the Italian cities the Lucus was not necessarily a true grove anymore, with trees (Hinard 2003, 109). Scheid goes further. According to him there may never have been a grove of the goddess Libitina in Rome (Scheid 2004; see also Chioffi 2004). Lucus may be interpreted as "cemetery". In the lucus was a temple of Venus Libitina, also called Lubentina, that may have given its name to the cemetery. Eventually Lucus Libitina seems to have become the name of a district (vicus) (CIL IX, 1455.III.54 mentions a pagus Libitinus at Ligures Baebiani, near Benevento in Campania). In later antiquity ancient authors may have reconstructed the goddess Libitina.

The lucus in Puteoli must have been used for various technical services, because the ordinary workers were present there. But what about the administrative services? In Rome the undertakers kept a death-register, witness for example these words of Suetonius: "a plague which in a single autumn entered thirty thousand deaths in the accounts of Libitina" (pestilentia unius autumni, quo triginta funerum milia in rationem Libitinae venerunt; Suetonius, Nero 39.1, translation J.C. Rolfe). The leges libitinariae provide much other information. The libitina was a monopoly, under the responsibility of a contractor (manceps). Only when the contractor could not deliver the services on time were people allowed to look for an alternative (column II, 24-30, not translated). The undertakers had a revenue and made profit. Fixed prices had to be paid to the contractor for the various services. People wanting to arrange a burial had to request the desired services in a formal way from the contractor or a person replacing him, in the Lucus, or - if the contractor was not there - "at the place (locus) that the contractor has hired or established to exercise the libitina". Every citizen was obliged to do so, including the decurions. The bodies of slaves and of people who had committed suicide had to be removed quickly. The residents of Puteoli were forbidden to leave a corpse unburied. Bodel remarks that "presumably one of the lost clauses stipulated that they had to remove any unclaimed corpses". The undertakers also had to carry out punishments, providing both equipment and personnel (floggers, executioners). The corpses could then be dragged with a hook to the place "where many corpses will be". The contractor had to post the text of the law in the locus mentioned before (Bodel 1994, appendix 2, and 2004).

The locus could apparently be rented from the colony, but the contractor could also arrange a building himself. According to Bodel the locus was in the Lucus Libitinae, but Bove, Hinard and Camodeca maintain that it was inside the city. Hinard remarks that the Lucus, outside the city, must have been property of the colony, contrary to the locus. He suggests that family members of the deceased first went to the Lucus, perhaps to pay a death-tax. If the contractor was not there they went to an office in the city, where the law had been posted (Hinard 2003, 125-128). The place of discovery of the Puteolan law suggests that it was on the Forum.

Bodel has further analysed the financial aspects of the trade. The contractor could be represented by someone else, and may have restricted himself to investing money (Bodel 1994 and 2004, 136). An inscription from Bergamum (CIL V, 5128), probably from the second century AD, put up in honour of a certain P. Marius Lupercianus, records that "his exceptional generosity shone out to the point that he remitted for all his fellow citizens in perpetuity the lucar Libitinae purchased from his city". Lucar means "revenue spent on public entertainments, funds disbursed to public officials for staging games". According to Bodel the inscription from Bergamum refers to revenue derived from a local Lucus Libitinae, revenue that was used for staging games. Linguistically there may have been a development from lucus (grove) to (pecunia) lucaris (money paid in the grove of Libitina at Rome in connection with funerals) to lucar. He argues that "the funerary concession was let by public contract and a designated location was rented to the contractor for the purpose of negotiating his services with clients". It was a source of income for the contractor and the city, for the city through a death-tax or the contract. Bodel mentions the relation between gladiatorial combats and theatrical shows with funerary games. So some of the money paid to the state for burials was spent on games that could be perceived as commemorative of the dead.

There is no explicit evidence about the formal organizational structure of the undertakers. According to Cimma they belonged to the societates publicanorum, so that they formed a legal body (corpus). This is denied by Hinard, who points primarily to the simpler organizational structure in Puteoli (Cimma 1981, 154-156; Hinard 2003, 57-59). The contractor could be called libitinarius. He appears in the Cena Trimalchionis by Petronius:

Ibat res ad summam nausea, cum Trimalchio ebrietate turpissima gravis novum acroama, cornicines, in triclinium iussit adduci, fultusque cervicalibus multis extendit se super torum extremum et 'Fingite me,' inquit, 'mortuum esse. Dicite aliquid belli.' Consonuere cornicines funebri strepitu. Unus praecipue servus libitinarii illius, qui inter hos honestissimus erat, tam valde intonuit, ut totam concitaret viciniam. Itaque vigiles, qui custodiebant vicinam regionem, rati ardere Trimalchionis domum, effregerunt ianuam subito et cum aqua securibusque tumultuari suo iure coeperunt.

The thing was getting positively sickening, when Trimalchio, now in a state of disgusting intoxication, commanded a new diversion, a company of horn-blowers, to be introduced; and then stretching himself out along the edge of a couch on a pile of pillows, 'Make believe I am dead,' he ordered. 'Play something fine.' Then the horn-blowers struck up a loud funeral dirge. In particular one of these undertaker's men, the most conscientious of the lot, blew so tremendous a fanfare he roused the whole neighborhood. Hereupon the watchmen in charge of the surrounding district, thinking Trimalchio's house was on fire, suddenly burst open the door, and rushing in with water and axes, started the much admired confusion usual under such circumstances.

Petronius, Satyricon 78.6 (cf. 38.15). Translation A.R. Allinson.

The funerary procession (pompa) usually took place on the second day after death, when the corpse would be carried out of the house (Lindsay 2000, 164). According to the Lex Iulia Municipalis, from the first century BC, the contractor and the master of the funeral ceremonies had a low social status:

Neve quis, qui praeconium dissignationem libitinamve faciet, dum eorum quid faciet, in municipio colonia praefectura IIviratum IIIIviratum aliumve quem magistratum petito neve capito neve gerito neve habeto, neve ibi senator neve decurio neve conscriptus esto, neve sententiam dicito.

Nor shall anyone who is an auctioneer, a master of funeral ceremonies, or an undertaker, so long as he is engaged in such a trade, be a candidate for, accept, administer, or hold the office of duumvir, quattuorvir, or any other magistracy, nor shall he be a senator or a decurion, or a conscript, nor shall he give his vote as such in a municipality, a colony, or a prefecture.

As Bodel puts it, death was unclean for the Romans in both cultural and religious terms, and it contaminated the living. Among other things, it also meant that people in certain professions, including all members of the funerary trade, were regarded as permanently polluted and had to live in isolation (Bodel 2000). In the course of time the regulations were less strictly applied and replaced by other measures. By the end of the 2nd century AD the notion had been significantly weakened (Lindsay 2000).

In the Corpus Iuris Civilis the possible actions are discussed "if a libitinarius had employed a slave as corpse-washer and he has robbed the corpse" (si libitinarius servum pollinctorem habuerit isque mortuum spoliaverit; Digesta 14.3.5.8). The various sources document the following personnel employed by or cooperating with the contractor: dissignatores (masters of the ceremonies), pollinctores (washers of the corpses), vespillones (corpse-bearers for the poor and criminals), sandapilarii (corpse-bearers), ustores (corpse-burners), tibicines (flute-players), fossores (grave-diggers in the catacombs in Rome), verberatores (floggers), and carnifices (executioners).

A funeral depicted in the Gallo-Roman Museum in Tongeren, Belgium. Photo: Wikimedia, Ziko van Dijk.

There is a lot of uncertainty about the situation in the fourth century, especially about the role of the emerging church. Were the dead taken to a church during the funeral, and was the eucharist then celebrated there? Were memorial services held? Could the church own part of a cemetery? What was the name of the undertakers now? In recent years these and other questions have been studied in depth by Rebillard (Rebillard 1999[a], 1999[b], 2003; cf. Jonckheere 2006). Constantine arranged free burials in Constantinople, under the responsibility of the church (Justinianus, Novellae 43 en 59). According to a source from the ninth century this was done for the poor. Persons called dekanoi, lektikarioi and kopiatai (three synonyms?) were provided for this purpose by 950 ergasteria (Rebillard 1999[b], 274). Clergymen called copiatae are encountered in two laws from the time of Constantius, from 356 and 359 AD (CTh 13.1.1 and 16.2.15). In both the word is presented as a neologism (clericos ... qui copiatae appellantur; clerici vero vel hi, quos copiatas recens usus instituit nuncupari), but the Greek form is already attested in a funeral inscription from Rome, from the time of Constantine (Rebillard 1999[b], 275-276). According to Rebillard copiatae was a general designation for the people who were active in the funerary trade, so for both the contractors and the workers. He concludes that funerals were still primarily the responsibility of the state when the family did not assume its traditional role (Rebillard 2003, 139 ff.). There is some evidence that bishops could hire contractors for the burial of the poor and foreigners (Rebillard 2003, 136 ff.). Christians who had deceased did not normally lie in state in a church. Exceptions are certain bishops and unmarried women (Rebillard 2003, 151).

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