Rambles in Rome: An Archæological and Historical Guide to the Museums, Galleries, Villas, Churches, and Antiquities of Rome and the CampagnaForbes, S. Russell
History
Rambles in Rome: An Archæological and Historical Guide to the Museums, Galleries, Villas, Churches, and Antiquities of Rome and the Campagna
Forbes, S. Russell
Art -- Rome; Rome (Italy) -- Guidebooks; Rome -- Antiquities
"Then the proconsul, according to the imperial command, bound the
blessed John the Apostle with chains, and brought him with him to
Rome, and announced his arrival to Domitian, who, being indignant,
gave command to the proconsul that the holy John should be placed in a
boiling caldron, in presence of the senate, in front of the gate which
is called the Latin Gate, when he had been scourged, which was done.
But, by the grace of God protecting him, he came forth uninjured and
exempt from corruption of the flesh. And the proconsul, being
astonished that he had come forth from the caldron anointed but not
scorched, was desirous of restoring him to liberty, and would have
done so if he had not feared to contravene the royal command. And when
tidings of these things had been brought to Domitian, he ordered the
holy Apostle John to be banished to the island called Patmos, in which
he saw and wrote the Apocalypse, which bears his name, and is read by
us."
THE TOMB OF LUTATIUS CATULUS
is a lofty concrete tomb of the time of the republic, on the left,
near the Church of S. John. This may be the general who ended the
First Punic War, 242 B.C., or his descendant consul, 102 B.C.,
proscribed by Marius, and who suffocated himself with charcoal fumes.
_Behind the round chapel is_
THE COLUMBARIA OF HYLAS AND VITALINE.
The columbaria were underground chambers, containing niches in the
walls, in which were placed the urns containing the ashes of those who
were burned. As the niche was like a dove's nest in shape, it was
called a "columbarium," the whole tomb a "columbaria." This one was
discovered by the Marchese Campana, and is carefully preserved. Here
were buried the freedmen of Augustus while Hylas and Vitaline were the
custodians.
_Returning to the Via Appia_, the second gate on the left admits to
the
CHAPEL OF THE SEVEN SLEEPERS,
dedicated to S. Gabriel and the Sleepers of Ephesus. It was decorated
in fresco by the same Beno and Maria de Rapiza who did the frescoes in
S. Clement's towards the end of the eleventh century.
Beyond, a tall cypress tree marks the entrance to the (No. 13)
TOMB OF THE SCIPIOS.
The vaults, hewn in the tufa, with the traces of a cornice over the
entrance arch, and the stump of a Doric column, are all that now
remain. The tomb was discovered in 1780; and the bones of the consul,
found in good preservation, were carried to Padua, where they were
interred by Senator Quirini. Six sarcophagi were found, and several
recesses for more bodies; the original inscriptions were removed to
the Vatican and placed in the vestibule of the Belvedere.
Lucius Scipio Barbatus, his son; Aula Cornelia, wife of Cneius Scipio
Hispanus, a son of Scipio Africanus, senior; Lucius Cornelius, son of
Asiaticus; Cornelius Scipio Hispanus and his son Lucius, were buried
here. Africanus senior was buried at Liternum.
From this tomb we can ascend into a brick tomb of the second century.
TOMB OF CORNELIUS TACITUS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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