Cicero on Funeral Regulations in Roman Law

The laws in Cicero's text draw from the Twelve Tables, aimed at reducing excessive funeral costs and ceremonies.
Key phrases translate to: "Do not carve and polish a funeral pile."

Funerals permitted: three suits of mourning with purple bands and ten flute players.
Prohibition on excessive lamentations:
- Women should not tear their cheeks or engage in distressed wailing.
Historical interpreters (Sextus, Aelius, Accilius) found these rules unclear, suspecting historical ceremonial references.
Aelius defined "lessus" as a lamenting shriek, echoing Solon’s prohibition against excessive grief expressions.

Quintus: Calls for further limitations on funeral extravagance, referencing the funerals of Figulus as examples of excess.
Marcus: Notes that past funerals exhibited greater simplicity compared to present practices.
Legal interpreters assert that the laws cover excessive ceremony and grandeur of sepulchers.

The custom of Greek interments purportedly began in Athens during Cecrops' reign.
After interment, relatives would plant seeds near graves, symbolizing rebirth and tribute.
Flowers were used during subsequent festivals, and lying about the deceased was deemed impious.

As time progressed, ceremonials grew more elaborate with multiple elegiac lamentations.
Solon’s Law: Reaffirmed in the Twelve Tables, it strictly regulates funerals and prohibits physical harm to graves.
Penalties were introduced: Violations concerning graves and the construction of mausoleums became punishable.
- Law prevented the construction of elaborate sepulchers beyond what ten men could erect in three days.
- Banned adornment with sculptures or Herms around graves.
- Prohibited panegyrics unless conducted officially at a public funeral.

Pittacus enforced restrictions on attendance at the funerals of strangers to limit unnecessary excess.
Demetrius Phalereus:
- Reintroduced moderation with laws on the timing of funerals (before sunrise) and restriction of sepulcher grandeur:
- Edifices over the dead limited to a column (up to three cubits high) or a tombstone.
- Established a magistrate to oversee observances.

Plato’s Regulations:
- Earmarked designated lands for burials, avoiding fertile or cultivable areas to protect living interests.
- Restricted the height of burial markers and the dimensions of epitaph tablets.
- Sets monetary limits on funeral expenses, scalable to family wealth (between one mina to five).
- Emphasizes the immaterial benefits after death and the moral consequences for the living.