Roman Dead

[Boyar Son]

What did the Romans do about their dead after a battle?

What would they do if they lost and ran away from the site?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

In every major battle from the beginning of time til about the beginning of the twentieth century, dead were left on the field. It was impossible to remove all of your dead from the field of battle. The winning side would go over the field and collect all of the weapons, armor, jewelry, and various metal things and leave the rest. Nobles from the winning side were probably found and give a proper funeral, but the rest just rotted.

At the site of the battle of Gettysburg, bones still turn up now and again if there is a heavy rain.

[Subedei]

I think in some cases the dead were burried in mass graves. Reason may be, that plagues were a danger. This may at least be true for the Ancient world.

I always assumed nomads burned their dead.

Anyways: correct me if i am wrong, as I am not 100% sure about my assumptions.

[Cheexsta]

There was an interesting documentary on the history channel recently about Hannibal that suggested that he did cremate the bodies of dead Romans after Cannae (IIRC), possibly to prevent plague epidemic in the Italic towns he was trying win the loyalty of. This was based off findings of large "ovens" that was assumed to be for this use. I don't recall reading anything about it before seeing this doco, though.

[macsen rufus]

I'm not sure about the Romans, but certainly in Hellenic warfare it was common for the dead to be buried or returned home. Truces for burials were not uncommon, and I recall (though dimly) one battle in which the Spartans were defeated (possibly by Thebes?) at which the victors insisted the Spartans bury their allies first, to make the point over how many Spartans lay dead on the field. But of course this was in the more ritualised battles of hoplite warfare.

[L.C.Cinna]

Roman dead were burried if possible as it seems to have been common in the ancient world. They even returned to bury Varus' dead.