History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides

Thucydides. The history of the Peloponnesian War, Volume 1-2. Dale, Henry, translator. London: Heinemann and Henry G. Bohn, 1851-1852.

When the funeral procession takes place, cars convey coffins of cypress wood, one for each tribe; in which are laid the bones of every man, according to the tribe to which he belonged; and one empty bier is carried, spread in honour of the missing, whose bodies could not be found to be taken up.

Whoever wishes, both of citizens and strangers, joins in the procession; and their female relatives attend at the burial to make the wailings.

They lay them then in the public sepulchre, which is in the fairest suburb of the city, and in which they always bury those who have fallen in the wars (except, at least, those who fell at Marathon; but to them, as they considered their valour distinguished above that of all others, they gave a burial on the very spot).