Memento Mori

A Memento Mori in Peebles Cemetery.

In Ancient Rome, when a victorious general returned in triumph, a slave would walk behind him intoning "Respice post te. Hominem te memento" ( "Look after you [to the time after your death] and remember you're [only] a man.").


In Genesis 3:19 - "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 


So in case there was any doubt, early tombstones very often included a Memento Mori - as a reminder to those who read them......


(Dedicated to Talpa who is a connoisseur of such things.)