The tombs of the Romans were characterized by their impressive grandeur.  The Roman satirists, Juvenal and Horace, censure the pomp and splendour of the tombs, particularly those on the Via Appia.  “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.  It consists of a round tower formed of immense blocks of Tiburtine stone, fixed together without cement, and adorned with a Doric marble frieze, on which are sculptured rams’ heads festooned with garlands of flowers.  “That they are rams’ heads, must be evident to any one who will take the trouble to examine them, though they are usually denominated the heads of oxen, because the tomb itself is vulgarly called Capo di Bove.  But this name is obviously derived from an ox’s head, (the arms of the Gaetani family, by whom it was converted into a fortress,) which was affixed many centuries ago on the side of the tower next the Appian Way, and still remains there; and, accordingly, the vulgar name is Capo di Bove, ‘the head of the ox,’ in the singular—­not in the plural.”

[Illustration:  (Tomb of Caecilia Metella.)]

Forsyth refers to this tomb as the only one of the ancient structures that bears the name of its tenant; this does not appear to be correct.  The beautiful tower rests upon a square basement, which has been despoiled of its exterior coating by Popes and other purloiners, but the greatest part of it is buried beneath the soil.  The wall of the tower itself, the interior of which is entirely built of brick, is 20 feet at least in thickness.  The sepulchral vault was below the present level of the earth, and it was not until the time of Paul III. that it was opened, when the beautiful marble sarcophagus of Caecilia Metella, now in the Palazzo Farnese, was found in