CIPPUS, a low column, sometimes round, but more frequently
rectangular. Cippi were used for various purposes; the decrees of
the senate were sometimes inscribed upon them; and with distances
engraved upon them, they also served as mile-stones. They were,
however, more frequently employed as sepulchral monuments. It was
also usual to place at one corner of the burying-ground a cippus, on
which the extent of the burying-ground was marked, towards the road
(_in fronte_), and backwards to the fields (_in agrum_).
[Illustration: Cippus, in the Vatican.]