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 regular form by other nations who adopted this custom. Nor should it be omitted to be remarked, 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 some of the seeds of superstitious and idolatrous worship from the Egyptians, through Cæcrops, Cadmus, Danaus, and Erechtheus; and among 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.
From the Egyptians and Grecians, especially from the latter, the Romans received many of their laws and customs, and among them that of pronouncing funeral orations in praise of the dead. 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, though it was not then usual to take notice of younger women in that way; but by that action he gained much favour with the populace. The reason why such a law was made in favour of women, Livy tells us, was—that when the public treasury was unable to
yield the sum agreed upon to buy off the Gauls when besieging the city and capitol, the women gave up their jewels for the purpose; for which cause they not only received thanks, but this additional honour, that after death they as well as men should be honoured with orations.
This custom of the Romans very early obtained among the Christians. Some of their funeral orations are extant, as that of Eusebius on Constantine, those of Nazianzen on Basil and Cæsarins, and of Ambrose on Valentinian, Theodosius, and others. Gregory, the brother of Basil, made a funeral oration on Melitus bishop of Antioch. These orations were usually pronounced before the bodies of the deceased were committed to the earth, which custom has been more or less continued ever since.