The
inscription only tells us he was one of the seven
Epulones, whose office was to furnish and to eat the
sacred banquets offered to Jupiter and the Gods.
The situation of this tomb is one of melancholy picturesqueness. The
meadows in which it stands are planted with mulberry-trees. They were,
as implied by their name, formerly a resort of the Roman people in
hours of gladness: they are no longer devoted to the enjoyment of the
living, but to the repose of the dead; "bright and beautiful in the
first days of the year was the verdure that covered the meadows of the
Roman people."[20] They are now the burial-place of Protestants, and
consequently, of foreigners only: by far the greatest part of the
strangers interred here are English.
[20] Rome, &c., vol. ii.
[Illustration: (_Tomb of Caius Cestius_.)]
Time has changed the colour and defaced the polish of the marble
pyramid. The grey lichen has crept over it, and wild evergreens hang
from its crevices. But, what it has lost in splendour it has gained in
picturesque beauty; and there are few remains of antiquity within the
bounds of the Eternal City, that the eye rests upon with such
unwearying admiration as this grey pyramid.
Lastly is the reputed _Tomb of the Horatii and Curatii_.
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