Instituta Laconia

Lycurgus did away with all superstitious fear connected with burials, granting the right to bury the dead within the city, and to have the tombs near the shrines. He also abolished the pollutions associated with death and burial. He permitted the people to bury nothing with their dead, but only to enfold the body in a red robe and olive leaves, and all to treat their dead alike. He also did away with the inscriptions on tombs, except of those who had met their end in war, and also did away with mourning and lamentation.[*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xxvii. (56 a), and Heracleides Ponticus, Frag. 2.8, in Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec. ii. p. 211.)