DECREE OF THE PONTIFFS ON THE TRANSFER OF A CORPSE
   
( 1st century BC ? )

 
( Johnson, Coleman-Norton & Bourne, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin, 1961, p. 62, n. 58 ).
 
 
     This decree, engraved on two pillars, which were discovered apparently before the entrance to a tomb near Terracina, Italy, before 1880, authorizes the transfer of a corpse from one to another burial site.
     The pontiffs maintained a priestly monopoly of interpretation of sacred law, since they, as guardians of religious tradition, were consulted by magistrates and by litigants on legal matters of a religious character.
 
 
ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
 
 
     Sacred to the nether shades.
     The college of pontiffs decrees:
     If the statements that are contained in the petition are true, it is our pleasure to permit you to remove from the sacred place the girl, about whom the case is concerned, and to rebury her pursuant to prescribed practice and to restore the writing of the epitaph to its original form, when a black ewe previously has been given as an atonement for the performance of the work.