The gray peperino sarcophagus was discovered in the tomb of the
Scipios on the Via Appia in 1780. It contained the remains of Scipio
Barbatus. When it was opened, two thousand years after his death, the
skeleton was found entire, with a ring upon one of the fingers. The
ring passed into the hands of the Earl of Beverley, and the bones were
removed to Padua by the Venetian senator, Angelo Quirini. On the wall
are inscriptions found in the tomb. A bust of the poet Ennius
surmounts the sarcophagus.