The destruction of ancient Rome : a sketch of the history of the monuments . re were, to be sure, some remark-able exceptions. A few of them, conspicuous for theirsize and for their wealth in marble and travertine, havesurvived to the present day, as the mausoleums of Cae-cilia Metella and of Lucilius Paetus, and the tombs ofVibius Marianus (Fig. 17) and of Vergilius Eurysaces. The underground rooms, or hypogaea, suffered lessdamage. Search was made, either by the degenerateRomans or by the barbarians, for the valuable objectsburied with the corpse, or placed as a memento inthe cinerary urns,
The destruction of ancient Rome : a sketch of the history of the monuments . re were, to be sure, some remark-able exceptions. A few of them, conspicuous for theirsize and for their wealth in marble and travertine, havesurvived to the present day, as the mausoleums of Cae-cilia Metella and of Lucilius Paetus, and the tombs ofVibius Marianus (Fig. 17) and of Vergilius Eurysaces. The underground rooms, or hypogaea, suffered lessdamage. Search was made, either by the degenerateRomans or by the barbarians, for the valuable objectsburied with the corpse, or placed as a memento inthe cinerary urns, such as ear-rings, finger-rings, andbrooches {fibulae) ; but the urns themselves, the beauti- 1 See his constitution to Limenius in the Codex Theodosianus^ X. , de sepulchris violatis. BURIAL PLACES 93 ful sarcophagi, the glass and terra cotta vessels peculiarto columbaria, and even the bronze lamps and candela-bras, were often left undisturbed. This is the reasonwhy the excavation of our ancient cemeteries is rich infinds, as I can testify from personal Fig. 17.—Tomb of P. Vibius Mariaiius, so-called Tomb of Nero, on theVia Cloclia, li miles north of Rome. My first experience in the exploration of tombs datesfrom 1868, when those lining the Via Severiana, betweenOstia and Castel Fusano, were first opened by the elderVisconti (Fig. 18). They yielded a great quantity ofglassware and exquisite Arezzo cups, besides a few ob-jects in gold and enamel. Next in date and impor-tance came the exploration of the columbaria of the 9-4 DESTRUCTION OF ANCIENT ROME Statilian family, in that portion of the Esquiline ceme-tery which extends from the so-called Minerva Medicato the Porta Maggiore (1875). In the space of a fewweeks, and within an area of a few thousand squarefeet, we recovered 566 inscriptions, and many hundred
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