Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Silicernium

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. 

SILICER'NIUM (περίδειπνον). A funeral feast given in honour of a deceased person, either at the funeral or within a few days after it (Varro, ap. Non. s. v. p. 48.); whence the term is sometimes used in mockery, to designate a decrepit old man. (Terent. Ad. iv. 3. 34.) Amongst the Romans it would appear that this entertainment took place at the sepulchre itself (ad sepulcrum, Varro, l. c.); and the highly decorated chambers, so commonly met with as appendages to their tombs (SEPULCRUM 1. and illustration), but never used to receive deposits, were doubtless intended for the purpose; while a regular triclinium, with its couches and stand for the table, is still to be seen within one of the sepulchral enclosures at Pompeii. But amongst the Greeks it was always given in the house of the nearest relative to the deceased, and immediately after the funeral. Demosth. de Coron. p. 321. 25. Cic. Leg. ii. 25. The annexed illustration (Silicernium/1.1) represents the relatives of a young Greek lady at a funeral feast of the kind described, from a marble bas-relief sculptured upon her tomb. The objects in the cornice above are merely intended to represent various articles of the female toilette and work-table.

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  Silicernium/1.1