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John Bodel calculates an annual death rate of 30,000 among a population of about 750,000 in the city of Rome, not counting victims of plague and pandemic. [10] At birth, Romans of all classes had an approximate life expectancy of 20–30 years: men and women of citizen class who reached maturity could expect to live until their late 50's or much longer, barring illness, disease and accident. [11]
In ancient Roman religion, the devotio was an extreme form of votum in which a Roman general vowed to sacrifice his own life in battle along with the enemy to chthonic gods in exchange for a victory. The most extended description of the ritual is given by the Augustan historian Livy, regarding the self-sacrifice of Decius Mus. [1]
A typical epitaph on a Roman funerary altar opens with a dedication to the manes, or the spirit of the dead, and closes with a word of praise for the honoree. [15] These epitaphs, along with the pictorial attributes of the altars, allow historians to discern much important information about ancient Roman funerary practices and monuments ...
Archaeologists have made some incredible discoveries about burial rites this year and last. Here we round up 12 of them.
These rituals included mummifying the body, casting magic spells, and burials with specific grave goods thought to be needed in the afterlife. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Angelica vestis , in English and European antiquity, was a monastic garment that laymen wore a little before their death, that they might have the benefit of the prayers of the monks.
Lustratio was an ancient Greek and ancient Roman purification ritual. [1] [2] It included a procession and in some circumstances the sacrifice of a pig (sus), a ram (ovis), and a bull (taurus) (suovetaurilia). [3] The name is the source of English "lustration" (a purification).
Ferālia / f ɪ ˈ r eɪ l i ə / was an ancient Roman public festival [1] celebrating the Manes (Roman spirits of the dead, particularly the souls of deceased individuals) [2] which fell on 21 February as recorded by Ovid in Book II of his Fasti. [1] This day marked the end of Parentalia, a nine-day festival (13–21 February) honoring the ...
A bustuarius (plural: bustuarii) was a kind of gladiator in Ancient Rome, who fought about the funeral pyre (Latin: bustum) of the deceased at a Roman funeral. [1] [2] [3] Bustuarii were considered of even lower status than other gladiators whose fights were exhibited in public gladiatorial games. [4]