If this wasn't possible, the bodies of soldiers killed in battle would be collected and given a mass cremation or burial. As you might expect from this, the Romans made a conscious effort to recover the bodies of those who died and, if time allowed it, would bury or cremate them individually. The one exception to that was if a woman died in child birth, she too would be given the honor of a tombstone.Īs for the Romans, most soldiers paid a small stipend each month to pay for funeral expenses should they fall in battle. If one were to die outside of battle, no such tombstone would be given and the person would simply be buried in an unmarked grave. This was a special honor among the Spartans. Also somewhat unique was that rather than stripping the dead of valuables, as per Spartan tradition, each fallen Spartan was buried with their weapons and armor and their final resting place was marked by a simple tombstone with their name and an inscription that read (translated) "In War". In this case, cenotaphs were sometimes erected near their home city in honor of the fallen.Īs noted, an exception to this are the Spartans who often buried fallen soldiers on the battlefield they were killed. With the exception of the Spartans, most ancient Greek societies also made efforts to bury their dead near the city they hailed from if time allowed it, though for the sake of practicality, mass graves or the like were sometimes utilizedinstead. For example, following the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC between Philip II of Macedonia and the Athenians, both sides buried their dead in accordance with the religious customs of the period this was seemingly done both out of respect for the valor the dead showed in battle and to appease the gods. That caveat out of the way, on the more definitive front, it's noted that the ancient Greeks made an effort to respect the usual burial customs of the dead after a battle and collecting the bodies of the fallen wasn't uncommon.
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