Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Sepulcrum

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

SEPUL'CRUM. A sepulchre; a general term for any kind of tomb in which the corpse was buried, or the bones and ashes deposited. (Ulp. Dig. 11. 7. 2.). Edifices of this nature would of course vary in details, materials, and embellishments, according to the wealth of the proprietor, and taste of the architect who designed them. A single sepulchral chamber, in which the remains were deposited, comprised all that was essentially requisite, and sufficed alone for tombs of the ordinary description (see example, No. 2.); but those of a more ostentatious character had one or two stories built over the burial-room, containing apartments, richly decorated with paintings and stucco work, which were intended to accommodate the members of the family when they went to perform religious rites or to visit the remains of their deceased relatives, but not to receive cinerary urns nor coffins; for these were deposited only in the sepulchral chamber, the entrance to which was in general studiously concealed, in order to secure its contents from violation. All these particulars are elucidated by the annexed illustration (Sepulcrum/1.1), representing in half section and elevation an ancient sepulchre of three stories, on the Via Asinaria, near Rome, the identical one in which the celebrated Barberini or Portland Vase, now preserved in the British Museum, was discovered. The lowest compartment is the sepulchral chamber, in which the vase was deposited.

2. Sepulcrum familiare. A family sepulchre; that is, which was constructed by an individual for himself and the other members of his family and household, including also the freed men and women. (Ulp. Dig. 11. 7. 5.) A sepulchre of this description is recognised by the different deposits contained in it, as well as by inscriptions like the following: SIBI . ET . CONJUGI . ET . LIBERIS . ET . LIBERTIS . LIBERTABUSQUE . POSTERISQUE . EORUM . FECIT. and is shown by the design on the last column, from an interior (Sepulcrum/2.1) in the streets of the tombs at Pompeii.

3. Sepulcrum commune. A common sepulchre; that is, which received the remains of many different individuals belonging to the same or to many different families. (Cic. Off. i. 17. Auson. Epitaph. xxxvii. 1. Inscript.) It consisted of a chamber divided into numerous rows of niches (columbaria), sometimes to the amount of several hundreds, and all regularly numbered, in each of which a pair of cinerary jars (ollae) could be deposited; and it was the common practice for the person to whom the sepulchre belonged, to give, sell, or bequeath by will the right of possession in so many niches, set out by number in the document. (Inscript. ap. Fabrett. 16. 71.) The illustration (Sepulcrum/3.1) represents the interior of a sepulchre of this kind, which was discovered near the Porta Pia at Rome.

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  Sepulcrum/1.1
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  Sepulcrum/2.1
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  Sepulcrum/3.1