FUNERAL Oration, a discourse pronounced in praise of a person deceased, at the ceremony of his funeral.
This custom is very ancient. In the latter part of the account given of the Egyptian ceremonies of interment may be perceived the first rudiments of funeral orations, which were afterwards moulded into a more polite and regular form by other nations who adopted this custom. Nor can we omit remarking, that those funeral solemnities were attended not only with orations in praise of the deceased, but with prayers for him; which prayers, it seems, were made by one who personated the deceased.
The Grecians received the seeds of superstitious and idolatrous worship from the Egyptians, through Cecrops, Cadmus, Danaus, and Erechtheus; and amongst other customs transplanted from Egypt into Greece, were the solemnities used at the burial of the dead. Of these an encomium on the deceased always formed part, as particularly noticed under the preceding article.
From the Egyptians and Grecians, especially from the latter, the Romans received many of their laws and customs, as well as much of their polytheism and idolatrous worship. It is well known that the custom of pronouncing funeral orations in praise of the dead obtained amongst them; and the manner in which their funeral services were performed has been already described. The corpse being brought into their great oratory, called the rostra, the nearest relation laudabat defunctum pro rostris, that is, made a funeral oration, in commendation principally of the party deceased, but touching the worthy acts also of those his predecessors whose images were there present. The account given by Dr Kennet is in these words: "In all the funerals of note, especially in the public or inductive, the corpse was first brought with a vast train of followers into the forum; here one of the nearest relations ascended the rostra, and favoured the audience with an oration in praise of the deceased. If none of the kindred undertook the office, it was discharged by some of the most eminent persons in the city for learning and eloquence, as Appian reports of the funeral of Sylla. And Pliny the younger reckons it as the last addition to the happiness of a very great man, that he had the honour to be praised at his funeral by the eloquent Tacitus, then consul; and this is agreeable to Quintilian's account of this matter. "For the funeral orations," says he, "depend very often on some public office, and, by order of the senate, are many times given in charge to the magistrates, to be performed by themselves in person. The invention of this custom is generally attributed to Valerius Poplicola, soon after the expulsion of the regal family. Plutarch tells us, that honouring his colleague's obsequies with a funeral oration, it so pleased the Romans that it became customary for the best men to celebrate the funerals of great persons with speeches in their commendations." Thus
Julius Cæsar, according to custom, delivered an oration in the rostra in praise of his wife Cornelia, and his aunt Julia, when dead; showing that his aunt's descent, by her mother's side, was from kings, and by her father's from the gods. Plutarch says that "he approved of the law of the Romans, which ordered suitable praises to be given to women as well as to men after death." But from what he says in another place it appears that the old Roman law provided that funeral orations should be made only for the elder women; and therefore he says that Cæsar was the first who made one upon his own wife, it not being then usual to take notice of younger women in that way; but by that action he gained much favour from the populace, who afterwards looked upon him, and loved him, as a very mild and good man. The reason why such a law was made in favour of the women, Livy tells us, was this, that when there was such a scarcity of money in the public treasury, that the sum agreed upon to give the Gauls to break up the siege of the city and capitol could not be raised, the women collected amongst themselves and made it up; for which cause they had not only thanks given them, but this additional honour, that after death they should be solemnly praised as well as the men; which looks as if, before this time, the men only had those funeral orations made for them.
This custom of the Romans very early obtained amongst the Christians. Some of their funeral sermons or orations are now extant, as that of Eusebius on Constantine; and those of Nazianzen on Basil and Cæsar, and of Ambrose on Valentinian, Theodosius, and others. Gregory, the brother of Basil, made sermone lxxvii, a funeral ora-
tion on Melitus, bishop of Antioch. These orations were usually pronounced before the bodies of the deceased were committed to the ground, which custom has been more or less continued ever since.
Thus it appears that those rites and ceremonies amongst the heathens, which have been delivered from one people to another, are what have given birth to