Death and Funerary Practices in Ancient Rome

Death and Funerary Practices in Ancient Rome

When many think of Ancient Rome they might think of a very rich society with magnificent architectural and beautiful dwellings or a powerful imperial society. Many don't realize that everyday life was rather uncivilized and that the concept of cleanliness had not progressed too much. The most common form of death in Ancient Rome was from illness or disease, aside from war and military. Illness and disease all sprouted from Ancient Roman's living conditions, nutrition, and sanitation.

The main sickness known was the plague that spurted up at various times but the real killer was the infectious disease. Infectious diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and digestive ailments were the most common. Studies show that the July through October were the high mortality months. Diseases came when the temperature was warm.

Evidence doesn't show a distinct mortality rate between men and women but epidemics in women under the age of forty, experienced higher mortality perhaps due to high workloads and poor diets. Woman life expectancy was twenty to thirty years old. Children from birth to ten years old had a higher risk of death and usually from malaria. It was common for children to predecease their parents and wives died years before their husbands usually.

The city of Rome was a very populated city, therefore; living conditions were in close quarters. Roman homes bumped right up to one another. These very close quarters made it very easy for disease to spread. There is a lot of misconception about the Roman Empire; there is a lot of talk about the prestigious, rich and imperial life, but actually five percent of the population was wealthy and rest of the people were poor. There were less single-family homes, called Domus's. There were more three to five story apartment buildings, called insulates. These apartment buildings would have communal bathrooms and water sources. In these apartment buildings kitchens were generally located near bathrooms. The bathrooms didn't have a direct connection to the public sewer system, so the bathroom had to be emptied by hand. Feces would be sitting and spreading germs into the area where food was being prepared.

Public health became important works in the Roman Empire. This was an attempt to clean up the city. Aqueducts were built to provide clean water and they started to remove sewage through sewers instead of just right on the streets open to the city. Personal hygiene was encouraged through building of the large public baths open to all levels of society. Actually doctors advised the sick to visit the baths more often for therapeutic value and the ill would go at mid-day generally when either woman or men weren't there. This was an attempt to keep the sick from infecting the rest of the public, but these pools did not have circulating water and were periodically emptied and cleaned. So even if the sick visited the baths when there weren't other people around, later on healthy people would visit just a little bit later bathing with the same water used by the sick earlier.

Prevention of illness was more important than the cure of illnesses in the Roman Empire. As practical people they used observations of the environment to determine what was causing ill health. Observations led Romans to realize that death rates were higher in and around marshes and swamps. So logically Romans looked to their religion for help. The Romans believed Gods held the key to longevity of life. They initially built temples to the Gods near swamps in hopes to reduce death. Additionally there were alternatives, with the drainage of swamps and they made sure important people and soldiers lived away from these areas.

Nutrition also was a huge factor to the Roman Empire's death rate. The average Roman ate olives, wine, fruits and little meat. The primary source of meat was pig and was fish was rare. There was a monthly state distribution of free grain, so porridge and bread was a staple of their diet. There wasn't really much of a variety in food, since all food was from their land. Food came into the city form suburban farms where contamination was high. Many of the farms where the food was produced were along or close to the Tiber River. It was very common for farms to be flooded on a regular basis and these floods would cause contamination to the food. The food was also distributed to mass amounts of people at a time, allowing for mass amount of peoples to get sick. Studies prove that most mothers and young children were undernourished. Most parents and other family members tried not to grow attached or show attention to newborns because it was uncommon for a child to live after age one. The undernourished bodies had low immune systems; more prone to disease and illness.

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