BUSTUM, in antiquity, denotes a pyramid or pile of wood, whereon were anciently placed the bodies of the deceased, in order to be burnt.
The Romans borrowed the custom of burning their dead from the Greeks. The deceased, crowned with flowers, and dressed in his richest habits, was laid on the bustum. Some authors say, it was only called bustum, after the burning, quasi beneustum: before the burning it was more properly called pyra: during it, rogor; and afterwards, bustum. When the body was only burnt there, and buried elsewhere, the place was not properly called bustum, but ustrina, or ustrinum.