of Augustus being deposited in the Columbarium which
bears their name. The entrance to these sepulchral chambers was from
the top, descending by an internal stair; and the passages and walls
were usually decorated with frescoes and arabesques, illustrating some
mythical or historical subject. The names of the dead were carved on
marble tablets fixed above the pigeon-holes containing the ashes.
Columbaria being only used for dependents and slaves, were generally
erected near the tombs of their masters; and hence all along the
Appian Way we see numerous traces of them side by side with the
gigantic monuments of the patrician families. The Columbaria near the
tomb of the Scipios are three in number, and contain the cinerary urns
of persons attached to the household of the emperors from the reign of
Augustus up to the period of the Antonines, when the system of burying
the bodies entire was again introduced. The last discovered
Columbarium is the most interesting of the group. Being only
thirty-three years exposed, the paintings on the walls and the vases
are remarkably well preserved. This tomb contains the ashes of the
dependents of Tiberius, the contemporary of our Lord. One pigeon-hole
is filled with the calcined bones of the court buffoon, a poor deaf
and dumb slave who had wonderful powers of mimicry, and used to amuse
his morose master by imitating the gesticulations of the advocates
pleading in the Forum. Another pigeon-hole contains the remains of the
keeper of the library of Apollo in the imperial palace on the
Palatine. A most pathetic lamentation in verse is made by one Julia
Prima over the ashes of her husband; and an inscription, along with a
portrait of the animal, records that beneath are the remains of a
favourite dog that was the pet of the whole household--a little touch
of nature that links the ages and the zones, and makes the whole world
kin. The whole of this region, called Monte d'Oro, for what reason I
know not, seems to have been a vast necropolis, in which not only
Columbaria for their slaves and freedmen were built by the great
patrician families, but also family vaults for the wealthier middle
classes were constructed and sold by speculators, just as in our
modern town cemeteries.

Very near the modern gate of the city the road passes under the
so-called Arch of Drusus. It consists of a single arch, whose keystone
projects on each side about two feet and a half beyond the plane of
the frontage