generally assumed, they are the only people of that race among whom tomb-building was not utterly neglected. The importance of the tombs among the Roman remains proves one of two things. Either a considerable proportion of Etruscan blood was mixed up with that of the dominant race in Rome, or the fierce and uncivilized Romans, having no art of their own, were led blindly to copy that of the people among whom they were located.

Of the tombs of Consular Rome nothing remains except perhaps the sarcophagus of Scipio; and it is only on the eve of the Empire that we meet with the well-known one of Cæcilia Metella, the wife of Crassus, which is not only the best specimen of a Roman tomb now remaining to us, but the oldest building of the imperial city of which we have an authentic date. It consists of a bold square basement about 100 ft. square,' which was originally ornamented in some manner not now intelligible. From this rose a circular tower about 94 ft. in diameter, of very bold masonry, surmounted by a frieze of oxskulls with wreaths joining them, and a well-profiled cornice: 2 or 3 courses of masonry above this seem to have belonged to the original work; and above this, almost certainly, in the original design rose a conical roof, which has perished. The tower having been used as a fortress in the middle ages, battlements have been added to supply the place of the roof, and it has been otherwise disfigured, so as to detract much from its beauty as now seen. Still we have no tomb of the same importance so perfect, nor one which enables us to connect the Roman tombs so nearly with the Etruscan. The only addition in this instance is that of the square basement or podium, though even this was not unknown at a much earlier period, as for instance in the tomb of Aruns (woodcut No. 237). The exaggerated height of the circular base is also remarkable. Here it rises to be a tower instead of a mere circular base of stones for the earthen cone of the original sepulchre. The stone roof which probably surmounted the tower was a mere reproduction of the original earthen cone.

279.

Next in age and importance was the tomb of Augustus in the Campus Martius. It is now so completely ruined that it is extremely difficult to make out its plan, and those who drew and restored it in former days were so careless in their measurement that it is difficult to ascertain even its dimensions: it appears however to have consisted of a circular basement about 300 ft. in diameter, and about 60 ft. in

1 I am extremely uncertain about the dimensions of this building: these are the best I can find.

height, adorned with 12 large niches. Above this rose a cone of earth as in the Etruscan tombs, not smooth like those, but divided into terraces, which were planted with trees. We also learn from Suetonius that Augustus laid out the grounds around his tomb and planted them with gardens for public use during his lifetime. More like the practice of a true Mogul in the East than the ruler of an Indo-Germanic people in Europe.

This tomb, however, was far surpassed, not only in solidity but in splendour, by that which Hadrian erected for himself on the banks of the Tiber, now known as the Mole of Hadrian, or more frequently the Castle of St. Angelo. The basement of this great tomb was a square about 340 ft. each way, and about 75 ft. high. Above this rose a circular tower 235 ft. in diameter and 140 in height. The whole was crowned probably by a dome, or at least by a curvilinear roof, which with its central ornament must have risen to a height of not less than 300 ft. The circular or tower-like part of this splendid building was ornamented with columns, but in what manner restorers have not quite been able to agree; some making 2 stories, both with pillars, some, one of pillars and the upper one of pilasters. It would require more correct measurement than we have to enable us to settle this point, but it seems probable that there was only one range of columns on a circular basement of some height surmounted by an attic of at least equal dimensions. The order might have been 70 ft., the base and attic 38 ft. each.

Internally the mass was nearly solid, having only 2 small sepulchral chambers, one above the other, in the centre. There may, however, have been a circular apartment under the dome, though this is hardly probable.

Besides these there was another class of tombs in Rome, called columbaria, generally oblong or square rooms below the level of the

ground, the walls of which were pierced with a great number of little pigeonholes or cells just of sufficient size to receive an urn containing the ashes of the body, which had been burnt according to the usual Roman mode of disposing of the dead. Externally of course they had

no architecture, though some of the more important family sepulchres of this class were adorned internally with pilasters and painted ornaments of considerable beauty.

In the earlier ages of the Roman empire these two forms of tombs characterised with sufficient clearness the two races, each with their distinctive customs, which made up the population of Rome. Long before its expiration the two were fused together so thoroughly that we lose all trace of the distinction, and a new form of tomb arose compounded of the two older, which became the typical form with the early Christians, and from them passed to the Saracens and other eastern nations.

The new form of tomb retained externally the circular form of the Pelasgic sepulchre, though constructive necessities afterwards caused it to become polygonal. Instead however of being solid, or nearly so, the walls were only so thick as were necessary to support the dome, which became the universal form of roof of these buildings.

The sepulchres of Rome have as yet been far too carelessly examined to enable us to trace all the steps by which the transformation took place, but as a general rule it may be stated that the gradual enlargement of the central circular apartment is almost a certain test of the age of a tomb: till at last, before the age of Constantine, they became in fact representations of the Pantheon on a small scale, almost always with a crypt or circular vault below the principal apartment. One of the most curious transitional specimens is that found near San Vito, represented in the

woodcut No. 281. Here, as in all the earlier specimens, the principal apartment is the lower in the square basement. The upper, which has lost its decoration, has the appearance of being hollowed out of the frustum of a gigantic Doric column, or rather out of a solid tower like the central one of the tomb of Aruns (woodcut No. 237). Shortly after the age of this sepulchre the lower apartment became a mere crypt, and in such examples as those of the sepulchres of the Cornelia and Tossia families we have merely miniature Pantheons somewhat taller in proportion, and with a crypt. This is still more remarkable in a building called the Torre dei Schiavi, which has had a portico attached to one side, and in other respects looks very like a direct imitation of that celebrated temple. It seems certainly, however, to have been built for a tomb.

Another tomb, very similar to that of the Tossia family, is called that of Sta. Helena, the mother of Constantine. If not hers, at least it belongs to the last days of the Empire, and may be taken as a fair specimen of the tombs of the age and of the class. It is a vast transition from that of Cæcilia Metella, though in the same direction as all the changes introduced by the Romans, the tendency of which was constantly transforming an external into an internal architecture.

It consists of a basement about 100 ft. square, containing the crypts. On this stands a circular tower in two stories. In the lower story is a circular apartment about 66 ft. in diameter, surrounded by 8 niches; in the upper the niches are external, and each pierced with a window. Its dimensions being nearly the same as those of the tomb of Cæcilia Metella, it affords an excellent opportunity of comparing the two extremes of the series, and of contrasting the early Roman with the early Christian tomb.

The typical example of a sepulchre of this age is the tomb or baptistery of Sta. Costanza, the daughter of Constantine. In this building the pillars that adorned the exterior of such a mausoleum, for instance, as that of Hadrian, are introduced internally. Externally the building never can have had much ornament. But the breaks between the lower aisle and the central compartment, pierced with the clerestory, must have had a very pleasing effect-more so at all events than the clumsy attempts that were made at this age to adorn buildings by illunderstood applications of the Grecian orders. In this example there is still shown a certain degree of timidity, which does not afterwards reappear. The columns are coupled and far more numerous than they need have been, and they are united by a fragment of an entablature, as if the architect were afraid to place his vault direct on the capitals. Still, notwithstanding these defects, it is a pleasing and singularly instructive example of a completed transformation, just what we miss in those secular buildings for which the Christians had no use.

Another building, which now goes by the name of the Baptistery of Constantine, was also undoubtedly a place of sepulture, though whether it is rightly ascribed to Constantine, and was intended by him

for his own tomb, may be questioned. Here the central apartment, never having been intended to support a dome, is of a far lighter construction, an upper order of pillars being placed on the lower, with merely a light architrave and frieze running between the two orders. The external walls were slight in construction and octagonal in plan. We must not in this place pursue any further the subject of the transition of style, as we have already trespassed within the pale of Christian architecture and passed beyond the limits of heathen art. So gradual is the change, and so long prepared, that it is impossible to draw the line exactly where the separation takes place between the one and the other.

TEMPLE OF MINERVA MEDICA.

One important building remains to be mentioned before leaving this part of the subject. It commonly goes by the name of the Temple of Minerva Medica, though this is certainly a misnomer. Recently it has become the fashion to assume that it was the hall of some bath; no building of that class, however, was known to exist in the neighbourhood, and it is extremely improbable that any should be found outside the Servian walls in this direction; besides that it. wants all the necessary accompaniments of such an establishment.

I have placed it with the tombs because its site is one that would justify such a supposition, and its form is just such as would be applicable to that purpose and to no other. I by no means wish to insist positively on this opinion, but I know of no more probable supposition. It certainly belongs to the last days of the Empire at Rome, if indeed it be not a Christian building, which I am very much inclined to believe it is, for, on comparing it with the Baptistery of Constantine and the tomb of Sta. Costanza, it shows a considerable advance in construction on both these buildings, and a greater similarity to San Vitale at Ravenna, and other buildings of Justinian's time, than to anything else now found in Rome.

As will be seen from the plan and section (woodcuts Nos. 283 and 284), it has a dome, 80 ft. in diameter, resting on a decagon of singularly light and elegant construction. Nine of the compartments contain niches which give great room on the floor, as well as great variety and lightness to the

Scale, 100 ft. to 1 in.

general design. 283. Plan of Minerva Medica at Rome. From Isabelle's Edifices Circulaires. Above this is a clerestory of 10 well-proportioned windows, which give light to the building, perhaps not in so effective a manner as the one eye of the