The ancients buried out of cities and towns; a usage which we find equally among Jews, Greeks, and Romans. Amongst the last, burying within the walls was expressly prohibited by a law of the twelve tables. The usual places of interment were in the suburbs and fields, but especially by the way sides. We have instances, however, of persons buried in the city; but it was a favour allowed only to a few of singular merit in the commonwealth. Plutarch says, those who had triumphed were indulged in it. Be this as it will, Val. Publicola, and C. Fabricius, are said to have had tombs in the forum; and Cicero adds Tubertus to the number. Lycurgus allowed his Lacedemonians to bury their dead within the city and round their temples, that the youth, being inured to such spectacles, might be the less terrified with the apprehension of death. Two reasons are alleged why the ancients buried out of cities; the first, an opinion that the sight, touch, or even neighbourhood of a corpse, defiled a man, especially a priest; whence that rule in A. Gellius, that the flamens dialis might not on any account enter a place where there was a grave: the second, to prevent the air from being corrupted by the stench of putrified bodies, and the buildings from being endangered by the frequency of funeral fires.

Burying in churches was not allowed for the first three hundred years after Christ; and the same was severely prohibited by the Christian emperors for many ages afterwards. The first step towards it appears to have been the practice of erecting churches over the graves of some martyrs in the country, and translating the relics of others into churches in the city; the next was, allowing kings and emperors to be buried in the atrium or church-porch. In the sixth century, the people began to be admitted into the church-yards; and some princes, founders, and bishops, into the church. From that time the matter seems to have been left to the discretion of the bishop.