#
Cornelius Sylla was not the first whose body was
burned in Rome, but the first of the Cornelian family;
which being indifferently, not frequently used before;
from that time spread, and became the prevalent
practice. Not totally pursued in the highest run of
cremation; for when even crows were funerally burnt,
Poppaea the wife of Nero found a peculiar grave in-
* Gumbrates, king of Chionia, a country near Persia.
+ XII. Tabulae, part i., de jure sacro, "Hominem mortuum
in urbe ne sepelito neve urito."
# "Ultima prolata subdita flamma rogo," &c.
Fast., lib.
iv., 856.
terment. Now as all customs were founded upon some
bottom of reason, so there wanted not grounds for this;
according to several apprehensions of the most rational
dissolution. Some being of the opinion of Thales, that
water was the original of all things, thought it most
equal<1> to submit unto the principle of putrefaction, and
conclude in a moist relentment.<2> Others conceived it
most natural to end in fire, as due unto the master
principle in the composition, according to the doctrine
of Heraclitus; and therefore heaped up large piles,
more actively to waft them toward that element,
whereby they also declined a visible degeneration into
worms, and left a lasting parcel of their composi-
tion.
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