These charges in case of a poor
person would be but slight, the funeral being celebrated; as in the
olden times of the republic, at night and in a very modest style.
The master of the funeral, as he was called, attended by lictors
dressed in black, directed the ceremonies in the case of a person of
importance. On the eighth day the body would be taken to its cremation
or burial, accompanied by persons wearing masks, representing the
ancestors of the deceased and dressed in the official costumes that had
been theirs, while before it would be borne the military and civic
rewards that the deceased had won.
Musicians playing doleful strains headed the procession, followed by
hired mourners who united lamentations with songs in praise of the
virtue of the departed. Players, buffoons, and liberated slaves
followed, and of the actors one represented the deceased, imitating his
words and actions. The couch on which the body rested as it was carried
was often of ivory adorned with gold, and was borne by the near
relatives or freedmen, though Julius C?sar was carried by magistrates
and Augustus by senators.
Behind the body the relatives walked in mourning, which was black or
dark blue, the sons having their heads veiled, and the daughters
wearing their hair dishevelled, and both uttering loud lamentations,
the women frantically tearing their cheeks and beating their breasts.
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