BUSTUM, in Antiquity, denotes a pyramid or pile of wood whereon the bodies of the deceased were placed 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 the richest habits, was laid on the bustum. Some authors say it was only called bustum after the burning, quasi bene ustum vel combustum: before the burning it was more properly called pyra, during it roga, and afterwards bustum. When the body was only burnt there, and buried elsewhere, the place was not properly called bustum, but ustrina, or ustrinum.
BUSTUM was also figuratively used to denote any tomb; hence facere bustum, violare bustum, &c.