Roman Death

I'm getting a touch dark this week with my Latin phrase: Dis Manibus. This pretty much meant "to the spirits of the dead" and anybody visiting Rome's incredible grave-stele display in the Capitoline Museum will see either this phrase or the abbreviated form of it (DM), carved into steles on display there.

Whenever someone died, "Dis Manibus" would usually be above their name, for according to pagan worship practices of the day, they were being committed unto the spirits of the dead. These "spirits" were the manes, and to superstitious Romans, that meant ghosts. Funerals featured loud tibia (double-pipe) music, along with hired mourners and usually, a procession. Roman nobility often paraded their ancestors' wax death masks. There may have actually been a certain amount of "ancestor worship" involved in these rites, though that's left to conjecture.

Antonius: Son of Rome's story begins with a death, and just like any culture, Romans had their ways of handling someone's passing. From what I've read, it appears that death itself was a "blemish", considered impure and so it's likely there may have been purification rites after someone handled their deceased or attended funerary rites. During the period of my story--the late Roman Republic, dead persons were cremated and their ashes were gathered and dispensed into an urn. After that, the urn was often placed inside a funerary stele, bearing the inscription Dis Manibus. Funerary steles are fascinating, because sometimes Romans would actually have the deceased's occupation carved into the stele, accompanied by a brief written memorial. Soldiers' steles have been discovered all over the Empire and they're often depicted in their armor or on horseback. Steles of ordinary citizens have shown occupations ranging from baking to midwifery! In Son of Rome, there's a very touching scene in which Marcus visit's a funerary stele and pours a libation into small holes in the top, honoring one who died. 

                  Ancient Roman funerary stele of a young girl. The words DIS MANIBUS appear right above her name.