Old Rome: A Handbook to the Ruins of the City and the CampagnaBurn, Robert
History
Old Rome: A Handbook to the Ruins of the City and the Campagna
Burn, Robert
Rome (Italy) -- Antiquities; Rome (Italy) -- Description and travel
The numerous magnificent works of art, sculptures, bronzes, lamps, cameos,
and coins, which have from time to time been discovered in these ruins,
are now dispersed through the museums of Italy. Some of the larger
sculptures, including the Hercules of Glykon and the group called the Toro
Farnese are in the Naples Museum, and two large porphyry fountain-basins
are in the Piazza Farnese at Rome.
Some excavations have been lately made in the Vigna Guidi, a vineyard on
the south-east side of the Court of these Thermæ. The ruins of a large
house have been found which had been demolished and covered with earth, to
make room for the Thermæ. Nothing is known of the history of this house,
but various conjectures have been hazarded, taken from the catalogues of
the Regionaries.
The vast Necropolis of Rome stretched along both sides of the Appian Road
from the Porta Capena nearly as far as the Alban Hills.
[Sidenote: Tomb of the Cornelian Scipios.]
Conspicuous among these burial-places is the tomb which remained in
possession of the great family of the Cornelian Scipios for nearly four
centuries.[118] The entrance to this is near the gate of one of the
vineyards, on the north-east side of the Appian Road, about two hundred
and fifty yards from the Porta S. Sebastiano. The tomb itself consists of
a number of passages roughly hewn in the tufa stone, as the catacombs are,
without any apparent plan of arrangement. Unfortunately, the original
state of the catacomb has been so altered by the substructions which have
been found necessary to support the roof that it can hardly be recognised
at the present day, and the sarcophagi and inscriptions have been removed,
and placed for greater security in the Vatican Museum. Those now seen in
situ are modern copies. Anciently there were two entrances, one from the
Via Appia, and the other from the road which here unites the Via Appia and
Via Latina. The present entrance has been cut for the convenience of
access from the Appian Road.
[Sidenote: Columbaria.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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