Of course, we get some general indications from these texts and monuments
concerning burial rituals and the current religious concepts of death – for example,
the ash-cists typical of the Roman columbariaare a manifest proof of the Roman
practice of cremation (Tac. Ann.16.6.2). But the problems arrive if one tries to get
more specific information. To begin with a question already mentioned: were the
formulae used consciously or only applied as a standard element of such a tomb inscrip-
tion? The practice of abbreviating them seems to point to the second answer. But
the other one is suggested when we find, in Greek inscriptions made by people who
had come into deeper contact with Roman concepts (for example, through service
in the Roman army), a translation of Dis Manibus(theoîs katachthoníois; IGRR3.917
[a soldier, citizen of Athens], 1007). At Lugdunum (Lyon) and its surroundings,
tomb inscriptions were often dedicated “under the trowel” (sub ascia dedicare). What
constituted this ritual and where did it come from? Generally, only metrical inscrip-
tions speak sometimes about the ideas of the people in question concerning death
and burial. But they often pronounce nothing but very general phrases – “nobody
is immortal”; specific religious ideas are rarely proclaimed (IGUR432). Even then,
we are sometimes confronted with such abbreviated allusions that we do not under-
stand them (Merkelbach and Stauber 2002: 20/28/02).
To sum up, inscriptions are the only means by which to reconstruct the religious
beliefs of all those people who are not represented in our literary sources; that is,
not only the lower social classes in the centers of the ancient world, but also almost
the whole populations of the provinces of the Roman empire. But even then we are
informed only of the beliefs of certain parts of these populations – those interested
in a very particular form of expressing their religious ideas. It depended on very specific
local conditions how these parts were constituted. But this is not the only funda-
mental problem in dealing with inscriptions as sources for religious knowledge.
Inscriptions are normally brief and formalized. Thus, we get insight into only some
aspects of the cults mentioned in them.
FURTHER READINGThere is no comprehensive introduction to the epigraphy of Roman religion.Inscriptions 187