lt on a portion of rising ground caused by a
current of lava which descended from the Alban volcano during some
prehistoric eruption, and stopped short here, forming the quarries on
the left side of the road which supply most of the paving-stone of
modern Rome. The Appian Way was here lowered several feet below the
original level, in order to diminish the acclivity; and the mausoleum
was consequently raised upon a substructure of unequal height
corresponding with the inclination of the plane of ascent. It was
originally cased with marble slabs, but these were stripped off during
the middle ages for making lime; and Pope Clement XII. completed the
devastation by removing large blocks which formed the basement, in
order to construct the picturesque fountain of Trevi. A large portion
of the Doric marble frieze, however, still remains, on which are
sculptured bas-reliefs of rams' heads, festooned with garlands of
flowers. Usually the bas-reliefs are supposed to represent bulls'
heads; and the name of Capo de Bove (the "head of the ox"), by which
the monument has long been known to the common people, is said to be
derived from these ornaments. But a careful examination will convince
any one that they are in reality rams' heads; and the vulgar name of
the tomb was obviously borrowed from the armorial bearings of the
Gaetani family, consisting of an ox's head, affixed prominently upon
it when it served them as a fortress in the thirteenth century. Pope
Boniface VIII., a member of this family, added the curious battlements
at the top, which seem so slight and airy in comparison with the
severe solidity of the rest of the structure, and are but a poor
substitute for the massive conical roof which originally covered the
tomb. Nature has done her utmost for nigh two thousand years to bring
back this monument to her own bosom, but she has been foiled in all
her attempts,--the travertine blocks of its exterior, though fitted to
each other without cement, being as smooth and even in their courses
of masonry as when first constructed, and almost as free from
weather-stains as if they had newly been taken from the quarry. Only
on the broad summit, where medieval Vandals broke down the noble pile
and desecrated it by their own inferior workmanship, has nature been
able to effect a lodgment; and in the breaches of this fortress, which
is but a thing of yesterday as compared with the monument, and yet is
far more ruinous, she has planted b