Walks in RomeHare, Augustus J. C. (Augustus John Cuthbert)
History
Walks in Rome
Hare, Augustus J. C. (Augustus John Cuthbert)
Rome (Italy) -- Description and travel
The contadino at the neighbouring farmhouse provides lights, with which
one can visit a labyrinth of steep narrow passages, some of which still
retain inscribed sepulchral slabs. Among the Scipios whose tombs have
been discovered here were Lucius Scipio Barbatus and his son, the
conqueror of Corsica; Aula Cornelia wife of Cneius Scipio Hispanis; a
son of Scipio Africanus; Lucius Cornelius son of Scipio Asiaticus;
Cornelius Scipio Hispanis and his son Lucius Cornelius. At the further
end of these passages, and now, like them, subterranean, may be seen the
pediment and arched entrance of the tomb towards the Via Latina. "It is
uncertain whether Scipio Africanus was buried at Liternum or in the
family tomb. In the time of Livy monuments to him were extant in both
places."[196]
There is a beautiful view towards Rome from the vineyard above the tomb.
A little further on, left (No. 14), is the entrance of the _Vigna
Codini_ (a private garden with an extortionate custode), containing
three interesting _Columbaria_. Two of these are large square vaults,
supported by a central pillar, which, as well as the walls, is
perforated by niches for urns. The third has three vaulted passages.
We now reach the _Arch of Drusus_. On its summit are the remains of the
aqueduct by which Caracalla carried water to his baths. The arch once
supported an equestrian statue of Drusus, two trophies, and a seated
female figure representing Germany.
The Arch of Drusus was decreed by the senate in honour of the second son
of the empress Livia, by her first husband, Tiberius Nero. He was father
of Germanicus and the emperor Claudius, and brother of Tiberius. He died
during a campaign on the Rhine, B.C. 9, and was brought back to be
buried by his step-father Augustus in his own mausoleum. His virtues are
attested in a poem ascribed to Pedo Albinovanus.
"This arch, 'Marmoreum arcum cum tropæo Appia Via' (Suet. I), is,
with the exception of the Pantheon, the most perfect existing
monument of Augustan architecture. It is heavy, plain, and narrow,
with all the dignified but stern simplicity which belongs to the
character of its age."--_Merivale._
"It is hard for one who loves the very stones of Rome, to pass over
all the thoughts which arise in his mind, as he thinks of the great
Apostle treading the rude and massive pavement of the Appian Way,
and passing under that Arch of Drusus at the Porta S. Sebastiano,
toiling up the Capitoline Hill past the Tabularium of the Capitol,
dwelling in his hired house in the Via Lata or elsewhere,
imprisoned in those painted caves in the Prætorian Camp, and at
last pouring out his blood for Christ at the Tre Fontane, on the
road to Ostia."--_Dean Alford's Study of the New Testament_, p.
335.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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