"Tombs," observes the clever author of _Rome in the Nineteenth
Century_, "formed a far more prominent feature in ancient communities
than in ours. They were not crowded into obscure churchyards, or
hidden in invisible vaults, but were sedulously spread abroad in the
most conspicuous places, and by the sides of the public ways." Hence
we may add, the "_Siste Viator_" (traveller, stop!) so common upon
tombs to this day. But why are not tombs placed by the roadside in our
times? "It would seem," says the writer just quoted, "as if these
mementos of mortality were not so painful or so saddening to Pagans as
to Christians; and, that death, when believed to be final dissolution,
was not so awful or revolting as when known to be the passage to
immortality. I pretend not to explain the paradox, I only state it;
and, certain it is, that every image connected with human dissolution,
seems now more fearful to the imagination, and is far more sedulously
shunned, than it ever was in times when the light of Christianity had
not dawned upon the world."[13]
[13] Rome in the Nineteenth Century, vol. ii. letter 36.
The _high-ways_ do not, however, appear to have been the earliest
sites of tombs. According to Fosbroke, "the veneration with which the
ancients viewed their places of sepulture, seems to have formed the
foundation upon which they raised their boundless mythology; and, as
is supposed, with some probability, introduced the belief in national
and tutelary gods, as well as the practice of worshipping them through
the medium of statues; for the places where their heroes were
interred, when ascertained, were held especially sacred, and
frequently a temple erected over their body, hallowed the spot. It was
thus that the bodies of their fathers, _buried at the entrance of the
house_, consecrated the vestibule to their memory, and gave birth to a
host of local deities, who were supposed to hold that part of the
dwelling under their peculiar protection. Removed from the
dwelling-houses to the highways, the tombs of the departed were still
viewed as objects of the highest veneration."[14]
[14] Encyclopaedia of Antiquities, p. 64.
Our readers may remember that the ancient Romans never permitted the
dead to be buried within the city,[15] a practice well worthy the
imitation of its modern inhabitants. One of the Laws of the Twelve
Tables was
Hominem mortuum in urbe ne sepelito, neve urito,
(neither bury nor burn a dead body in the city.) But this law must be
understood with this limitation, that the Senate occasionally granted
exemption from it, to distinguished individuals, though so rarely,
that a tomb within the walls of Rome seems to have been considered a
reward of the most pre-eminent virtue.
[15] See an Interesting Inquiry on Burying in Vaults, by an
esteemed Correspondent, since deceased--in vol. xv. of
_The Mirror_.
The tombs of the Romans were characterized by their impressive
grandeur. The Roman satirists, Juvenal and Horace, censure the pomp
and splendour of the tombs, particularly those on the Via Appia. "On
that 'Queen of Ways,' and way to the Queen of Cities, were crowded the
proud sepulchres of the most distinguished Romans: and their
mouldering remains still attest their ancient grandeur." Again, "those
who have traced the long line of the Appian Way, between its ruined
and blackening sepulchres, or stood in the Street of Tombs that leads
to the Gate of Pompeii, and gazed on the sculptured magnificence of
these marble dwellings of the dead, must have felt their solemnity,
and admired their splendour."[16]
[16] Rome, &c., vol. ii.
Antiquarian writers have carefully classified the Roman tombs. We
have, however, only space to remark generally, that the sepulchres
were either square, circular, or pyramidal buildings, and with one
entrance only, which was invariably on the side farthest from the
public road. They usually consisted of a vault in which the urns and
sarcophagi were deposited, and a chamber above, in which the statues
or effigies of the dead were placed, and the libations and obsequies
performed. These sepulchres were usually places of family interment,
but sometimes they were solitary tombs. Of the latter description is
the _Tomb of Caecilia Metella_, which is generally acknowledged to be
the most beautiful sepulchral monument in the world. It consists of a
round tower formed of immense blocks of Tiburtine stone, fixed
together without cement, and adorned with a Doric marble frieze, on
which are sculptured rams' heads festooned with garlands of flowers.
"That they are rams' heads, must be evident to any one who will take
the trouble to examine them, though they are usually denominated the
heads of oxen, because the tomb itself is vulgarly called Capo di
Bove. But this name is obviously derived from an ox's head, (the arms
of the Gaetani family, by whom it was converted into a fortress,)
which was affixed many centuries ago on the side of the tower next the
Appian Way, and still remains there; and, accordingly, the vulgar name
is Capo di Bove, 'the head of the ox,' in the singular--not in the
plural."
[Illustration: (_Tomb of Caecilia Metella_.)]
Forsyth refers to this tomb as the only one of the ancient structures
that bears the name of its tenant; this does not appear to be correct.
The beautiful tower rests upon a square basement, which has been
despoiled of its exterior coating by Popes and other purloiners, but
the greatest part of it is buried beneath the soil. The wall of the
tower itself, the interior of which is entirely built of brick, is 20
feet at least in thickness. The sepulchral vault was below the present
level of the earth, and it was not until the time of Paul III. that it
was opened, when the beautiful marble sarcophagus of Caecilia Metella,
now in the Palazzo Farnese, was found in it. A golden urn, containing
the ashes, is said to have been discovered at the same time. That
Caecilia Metella, for whose dust this magnificent monument was raised,
was the daughter of Metellus, and the wife of Crassus, is all we know.
"Her husband, who was the richest and meanest of the Romans, had
himself no grave. He perished miserably with a Roman army in the
deserts of the East, in that unsuccessful expedition against the
Parthians which has stamped his memory with incapacity and shame."[17]
The rude battlements on the top of the tower, and all the old walls
and fortifications which surround it, are the work of the Gaetani
family, who long maintained their feudal warfare here. Forsyth
observes:--"Crassus built this tomb of travertine stone 24 feet thick,
to secure the bones of a single woman; while the adjoining castle had
but a thin wall of soft tufo to defend all the Gaetani from the fury
of civil war." Eustace says: "The solidity and simplicity of this
monument are worthy of the republican era in which it was erected, and
have enabled it to resist and survive the lapse and incidents of two
thousand years."[18]
[17] Rome, &c., vol. ii.
[18] Classical Tour, vol. i., p. 407.
Next is the grey pyramidal Tomb of Caius Cestius, in the fields called
_Prati del Popolo Romano_, on the western side of the Aventine Hill.
This ancient monument remains entire, an advantage which it owes
partly to its form, well calculated to resist the action of the
weather, and partly to its situation, as it is joined to the walls of
the city, and forms part of the fortification. Its base is about 90
feet square, and it rises, according to Eustace, about 120 feet in
height. It is formed, or at least encrusted, with large blocks of
white marble; a door in the base opens into a gallery terminating in a
small room, ornamented with paintings on the stucco, in regular
compartments. In this chamber of the dead, once stood a sarcophagus
that contained the remains of Cestius. "At the base of the pyramid
stand two marble columns, which were found beneath the ground, and
re-erected by some of the popes. One foot, which is all that remains
of the colossal statue in bronze of Caius Cestius, that formerly stood
before his tomb, is now in the Museum of the Capitol."[19]
[19] Rome, &c., vol. ii.--From the monument we learn that he
was the contemporary of Caesar and Augustus, but his name
does not appear in the annals, or the literature of that
eventful and enlightened period; of his wealth, and of
his pride, this magnificent tomb is a sufficient record:
but of his merits or his virtues, no trace remains. The
inscription only tells us he was one of the seven
Epulones, whose office was to furnish and to eat the
sacred banquets offered to Jupiter and the Gods.
The situation of this tomb is one of melancholy picturesqueness. The
meadows in which it stands are planted with mulberry-trees. They were,
as implied by their name, formerly a resort of the Roman people in
hours of gladness: they are no longer devoted to the enjoyment of the
living, but to the repose of the dead; "bright and beautiful in the
first days of the year was the verdure that covered the meadows of the
Roman people."[20] They are now the burial-place of Protestants, and
consequently, of foreigners only: by far the greatest part of the
strangers interred here are English.
[20] Rome, &c., vol. ii.
[Illustration: (_Tomb of Caius Cestius_.)]
Time has changed the colour and defaced the polish of the marble
pyramid. The grey lichen has crept over it, and wild evergreens hang
from its crevices. But, what it has lost in splendour it has gained in
picturesque beauty; and there are few remains of antiquity within the
bounds of the Eternal City, that the eye rests upon with such
unwearying admiration as this grey pyramid.
Lastly is the reputed _Tomb of the Horatii and Curatii_.
Its identity has been much controverted, and the Cut shows it to be a
ruinous pile capped with luxuriant foliage. It will, nevertheless,
serve to illustrate the stupendous character of the ancient Roman
tombs.
[Illustration: (_Tomb of the Horatii and Curatii_.)]
The theatre of the celebrated combat between the Horatii and Curatii
lies about five miles from the city of Rome. Several tombs stand on
the side of the hillock that borders these fields, but no one in
particular is _there_ pointed out as belonging to the unhappy
champions. The monuments, however, existed in Livy's time, and Eustace
supposes that "as their forms and materials were probably very plain
and very solid, they must have remained for many ages after, and may
be some of the many mounds that still stand in clusters about the very
place where they fell." This explanation will not, however, refer to
the above engraving, as the buildings in the distance will show.
* * * * *