All have the same form, with a plain lower storey now mostly below ground level but exposed, consisting of pairs of engaged columns between flat vertical slabs, all crammed together with no space in between.

The effect is far from the classical orders; at the corners the slabs turn to pilasters rising at the top level to unorthodox capitals combining scrolls at the sides with plant forms in the centre.

His name takes the form of a Roman praenomen and nomen followed by a Greek cognomen, nomenclature typical for a freedman, combining as it does the identity of the former owning family with that of the individual when a slave.

The unusual form of the monument and of its inscription have also been used to locate Eurysaces as a nouveau riche parvenu in the manner of Trimalchio, with his "naïve ostentation" vulgarly imitative of élite culture.

[4][5][6] The slightly later Pyramid of Cestius is another individualistic tomb for an evidently wealthy man outside the traditional élite; in this case it perhaps referred to his taking part in campaigns in Nubia.

Although the precise extent of the pomerium at the various stages of its history is uncertain, it is believed to have later been coterminous with the Aurelian Walls, perhaps extending to the area of the Porta Maggiore after its expansion by Claudius.

[9] Eurysaces' tomb, at the junction of the Via Praenestina and Via Labicana just before entering Rome, was in a particularly prominent position, and its trapezoidal form was likely dictated by the space available.

The surviving part of the inscription reads EST HOC MONIMENTVM MARCEI VERGILEI EVRYSACIS PISTORIS REDEMPTORIS APPARET, or in English, "This is the monument of Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces, baker, contractor, public servant.

[4][note 2] Theft of the female head from the relief in 1934 and uncertainty as to the present whereabouts of the urn, believed to be somewhere in the Museo Nazionale Romano, mean their study is now conducted from excavation drawings and early photographs.