This type of display was banned because of the passions it could bring out in a crowd in early societies. These laws (the Solonic law in Athens and the XII Tables of Rome) came during their early phases when conflict between elites over power in the city was common. The wealthy could afford to hire mourners whose cries could whip up the crowd or audience to extreme fervour and the ensuing violence could be directed at that family's enemies leading to more funerals, more furor, more violence - further destabilizing society.