"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.
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