SILICERNIUM, among the Romans, was a feast of a private nature, provided for the dead some time after the funeral. It consisted of beans, lettuces, bread, eggs, &c. These were laid upon the tomb, and they foolishly believed that the dead would come out for the repast. What was left was generally burnt on the stone. The word silicernium is derived from flex and cena, i. e. "a supper upon a stone." Eating what had thus been provided for the dead, was esteemed a mark of the most miserable poverty. A similar entertainment was made by the Greeks at the tombs of the deceased; but it was usual among them to treat the ghosts with the fragments from the feast of the living. See FUNERAL and INFERNE.