Tomb of the Scipios

The tomb was rediscovered twice, the last time in 1780[2] and stands under a hill by the side of the road behind a wall at numbers 9 and 12 Via di Porta San Sebastiano, Rome, where it can be visited by the public for a small admission fee.

The location was privately owned on discovery of the tomb but was bought by the city in 1880 at the suggestion of Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani.

During the republic the tomb stood in a cemetery for notables and their families located in the angle between the Via Appia and the Via Latina on a connecting road joining the two just past the branch point.

The decoration is attributed to the initiative of Scipio Aemilianus, and is a fundamental example of Hellenization of Roman culture in the course of 2nd century BC.

The last well-known use of the tomb itself was in the Claudio-Neronian period, when the daughter and the grandchild of Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus were buried here.

After then the mainly Christian Romans (who did not have the same loyalties to the traditions of pagan Rome) apparently stopped maintaining it and lost track of it.

It changed hands many times before rejoining the collection; meanwhile, it was published by Giacomo Sirmondo in 1617 in "Antiquae inscriptionis, qua L. Scipionis Barbati, filii expressum est elogium, explanatio.

In 1780 the then owners of the vineyard, the brothers Sassi, who apparently had no idea it was there, broke into the tomb again during remodelling of their wine cellar.

What they did find they turned over to the Vatican under Pope Pius VI, including the gold signet ring taken off the finger bone of Barbatus.

[9] The tomb was subsequently neglected again (but not lost) until purchased by the city of Rome; in fact, there were reports of a Roma family living in it.

The monument is divided into two distinct parts: the main complex, dug into a tuff ledge on a large square plan, and a brick-built arcade from the later period, with a separate entrance.

The view expressed by Simon Bell Platner[11] (among others) that the tomb was built over a tuff quarry is purely conjectural.

This base was entirely covered in frescoes, of which only small pieces remain, showing three layers: the two oldest (from about the middle of the 2nd century BC) show historical scenes (some soldier figures can be recognised), while the last, the most recent, has a red simple decoration with stylized waves (1st century AD).

[12] On the left a large circular cavity has destroyed a corner of the tomb, probably by the construction and use of a lime kiln in the medieval period.

The slightly inclined position of the neck has caused some to believe the first head is part of a larger statue, perhaps a reclining feasting figure from a sarcophagus lid, a type common in southern Etruria from the start of the 3rd century BC.

The head's modelling is in essence but effective, with a roundish face, swollen lips, wide nose and large eyelids.

Scholars propose dating it to the end of the 2nd century BC, when the Etruscan style of Latium underwent its first Greek influences.

The 30 resting places approximately correspond to the number of Scipiones who lived between the beginning of the 3rd and the middle of 2nd century BC, according to Coarelli.

The latter type, which is in the majority, is an arched recess sunk into the wall in which the deceased was placed, and the opening covered by an inscribed slab with the letters painted red.

Livy records that the quaestor Lucius Cornelius Scipio was sent to meet King Prusias II of Bithynia and conduct him to Rome, when this monarch visited Italy in 167 BC.

Entrance to the tomb. The wall lining the Via di Porta San Sebastiano lies directly behind the cameraman, who is standing within or on the inside of the gate at Number 6. Beyond the wall at the top right of the hill is the park road. The tomb fronted and opened in that direction and towered over the via Appia, now several meters higher than it was then. The hill continues down to the left, where more of the ruin is to be found.
Drawing based on Piranesi's plan view, criticised by Lanciani [ 6 ] as being too idealized.
Elevation view of the tomb façade of the 2nd half of the 2nd century BC, as reconstructed by Filippo Coarelli . [ 10 ]
The so-called "Head of Ennius"
Floor plan of the tomb, based on a plan by Filippo Coarelli . [ 14 ] 1 is the old entrance fronting on the park road, 2 is a "calcinara", an intrusive mediaeval lime kiln, 3 is the arched entrance seen in the photographs (street number 6), anciently overlooking the Via Appia, 4 is the entrance to the new room (street number 12). Letters from A to I were the sarcophagi or loculi with inscriptions. The tomb is now empty except for facsimiles; the remains were discarded or reinterred, while the sarcophagi fragments ultimately went to the Vatican.
Epitaph of Asiaticus II.