[Illustration: CIRCUS OF MAXENTIUS.]
wife of Lucius Cornelius Sylla, and daughter of Quintus Cæcilius
Metellus (Plutarch). The building consists of a circular tower,
seventy feet in diameter, resting on a quadrangular basement made
chiefly of lava and stone, cemented together by lime and pozzuolana,
and strengthened with key-stones of travertine. This ruin, so long
respected as a tomb, was converted into a fortress by Boniface VIII.,
and used as such by the Gaetani, his near relatives. It now belongs to
archæology. Learned men have made it one of their most sacred
resting-places, and it is a favourite resort of tourists and artists.
The inscription on the side facing the road runs as follows:
"Cæciliæ--Q. Cretici. F.--Metellæ. Crassi." _To the right_ there are
bas-reliefs, well preserved--one representing a trophy of victory,
another a slave or a prisoner; both were brought from a tomb about a
mile further on. The tower was built seventy-nine years before Christ.
The construction is very remarkable, on account of the enormous
thickness of the walls, which are of concrete faced with travertine
and lined with brick in the interior. The enormous massiveness of the
structure indicates a rude and semi-barbarous period. Plutarch speaks
of the extravagance of Sylla in funeral ceremonies. Cecilia Metella
had been previously married to the elder Scaurus (Pliny, xxxvi. 24;
xxxvii. 5). "Sylla dreamed, shortly before his death, that his son
Cornelius, who died before his wife, Cecilia Metella, appeared to him,
and summoned him away to join his mother" (Plutarch).
The inner chamber of the ruin is fifteen feet in diameter, and was at
one time supposed to contain great treasures both of art and coinage.
But the sarcophagus of white marble now in the court of the Farnese
Palace, and _believed_ to have been discovered in or near the Tomb of
Cecilia Metella, is the only treasure it has produced.
"What was this tower of strength? within its cave
What treasure lay so locked, so hid?--a woman's grave."
_Opposite are_ the ruins of a Gothic church,--