I mentioned already that Roman tombs could be very eccentric indeed and I want to show you one of the two most eccentric tombs in my opinion from ancient Rome that one can see in the city of Rome today and the first of these is the so-called tomb of Cestius because we believe, in fact we're absolutely sure, that it honors a man by the name of Gaius, G_a_i_u_s Cestius, C_e_s_t_i_u_s. It was put up in 15 B.C. that is in the age of the Emperor Augustus. In this Google Earth aerial view we see what that structure looks like today. It is a Roman tomb in the form of an Egyptian pyramid. It's the only Roman tomb in the form of the Egyptian pyramid that we can see in Rome today, but we know there were others in antiquity. We have reports that tell us that certain others that existed at a certain time were torn down. At one point there was one for example not far from where the Vatican that was torn down at one point because it got in the way of the street. So this is not unique in the sense of the only one although it is the only one still surviving. Today, we have no idea how many of these there were. There were certainly some, whether there were a lot we can't be absolutely certain. But here it is a Roman tomb in the form of a pyramid. Now when it was first put up, it was put up outside the Servian walls of the city because all as we talked about the fact that by Roman law the Necropolis or City of the Dead needed to be located outside the walls of the city. But as the city grew and as there was a need for a new wall and this happened in the third century A.D. and we'll talk about it way at the end of the semester, the Romans ended up building a new wall, this is the famous Aurelian Walls and the circuit happened to be planned to pass this particular point where the tomb of Cestius was and fortunately they recognized the aesthetic and historical value of this tomb and decided not to tear it down but rather to incorporate it into the Aurelian Wall. So what you see in this aerial view are two parts of the Aurelian walls abutting and in fact incorporating the pyramid of Cestius but in antiquity when it was first built it stood alone. And what you see over here is a gateway that also belongs to the later Aurelian walls. So again fortunately this particular tomb was preserved. These two engravings are helpful in showing us that the inner core of the tomb of Cestius was concrete and the outer pyramidal shape was faced once again with travertine. So travertine clearly the material of choice by aristocrat's because we're going to see that Cestius was also an aristocrat for their tombs in the age of Augustus; concrete core, travertine facing. And then if you look at this cutaway view over here you will see that the burial chamber inside was very very very small, very very very small. So small enough that it was not a lot of space for these burials but we'll see that we still believe that this too was a family tomb. The burial chamber has had and still has remnants of painted walls. And I show you an engraving here of those walls that was made when they were in somewhat better shape than they are today and I wondered if any of you, you're such experts now on First to Fourth Style Roman wall painting if any of you could tell me I'm sure all of you could tell me what style painting is being used in the burial chamber of the tomb of Cestius. Third style. Why third style? Very thin candelabra here and mythological figures. How are those used that show that this is a typical third style wall. That's the word floating. They are floating in this random space right in the center of the panels as we know was characteristic of third style Roman wall paintings. So 15 BC third style Roman wall painting and if you think back to some of the palaces and villas that we looked at and their dates think of Boscotrecase for example 11 B.C. you see this is roughly contemporary to what's happening in Campelia at this particular time. And here are two details of the remains of those paintings and you can see one of these floating mythological figures that looks like a victory figure, female, winged carrying a wreath over here flying in the center of the panel. This also shows you that in this case the panels were white very similar to the walls for example of the third style and the Domus Aurea in Rome and then here this candelabrum very attenuated very delicate that is used in place of columns both of these motifs decorating the flat wall that was so characteristic of third style Roman wall painting. Here's another view of the pyramid as it looks today. You can see it is exceedingly well preserved, one of the best preserved of all Roman tombs. You can see again the way in which the later wall was built into it and you could also see the travertine blocks and how carefully carved they were by the designers, by the artisans. And here this is very helpful because it shows you that at least one but I can tell you that two sides of the tomb the eastern and western sides of the tomb had in the center of the pyramid the name of Cestius. That's how we know it was his tomb. You see it here. Gaius Cestius, and it also includes all of his titles so he was very happy to advertise his titles on this monument the purpose of which of course was for those who mourned him to feel proud of him and his achievements, but even more important than that from his point of view I am sure and from the point of view of the Romans in general was that his name and his deeds be preserved for posterity so that some day in 2009 we're sitting in this classroom looking at this we think back on Cestius, his title, what he did, what he achieved and the way in which he was memorialized. So this whole idea of preserving memory not only in your own time but into the far flung future. This tomb as I said despite the fact that the burial chamber is small, we do believe it was a family tomb. We have evidence for that because two bases were found that seemed to belong to this tomb because Cestius is named or members of his family Cestius. You can see they are named in these inscriptions. These have markings on the top that suggest to us that statues stood on them at one point. So these were statue bases probably placed right in front of the entrance to the pyramidal tomb and if you cast your eyes over this inscription you will not only see the name Cestius a few times but you will see another very important name and that is M. Agrippa. That's Marcus Agrippa. That's the Marcus Agrippa, the long time boyhood friend and longtime close confidant and one time heir and son-in-law of Augustus. All of those things he's mentioned here. So he is a member also of this family. So it demonstrates to us again we are dealing with an aristocratic family. So all of those tombs I've shown you thus far, the Mausoleum of Augustus, the tomb of Caecilia Metella and the tomb of Gaius Cestius are all examples of aristocratic tomb architecture in the age of Augustus. Why did he choose a pyramid for his tomb is a very interesting question to ask and I would suggest here and it's not rocket science to figure this out at all. I would suggest here though that the reason has to do with Augustus' very important victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31. It was at that time and even before that an interest in things Egyptian came into Rome. We saw that Augustus himself made reference to his victory over that pair of Cleopatra and Mark Antony in the complex with the Ara Pacis and the Mausoleum of Augustus by inserting that obelisk in the center, an obelisk that I've mentioned to you was actually brought from Egypt itself. So these references to Egypt initially under Augustus himself had political import. An obelisk was there to show that Augustus had prevailed over Mark Antony and Cleopatra and because he had prevailed he could steal the obelisk from Egypt and bring them back to decorate Rome as trophies essentially. So that was a political statement on his part. But as time went on Egyptomania became a kind of fashion statement. I think that it caught on. It caught on after Egypt was made a Roman province in 30 B.C. right after Actium and we begin to see this wave of things Egyptian spreading through Rome and it's likely that Cestius, perhaps a combination of both since he's from Agrippa's family. This combination of political reference but also just this was an interesting- this was the style at this particular point to do things in the Egyptian manner. You might remember some of those Egyptianizing motifs that we saw for example from the black room at Boscotrecase which was also a villa that was closely connected with the imperial family a member group of Postumus who was the son of Agrippa himself born by his wife Julia after Agrippa's death hence his name. Another view of the back of the pyramid of Cestius, the mausoleum of Cestius, which again shows us how well preserved it is. You can see the Aurelian walls, you can see the gate that we looked at before and you can also see that the back is actually in a modern cemetery. This is the so-called Protestant cemetery. And if you are in Rome and have time this is one of the most interesting places to visit. It's again a bit off the beaten track that many tourists go there but those that do are rewarded because it's a cemetery where many expatriates were buried. People who flocked to Rome because they loved it. Authors, scholars, poets, painters came to Rome ended up spending the rest of their lives, they are coming from all different countries around the world spending the rest of their lives there, dying there and eventually being buried in the so-called Protestant cemetery. Percy Bysshe Shelley for example is buried there as is John Keats and the Keats marker is my favorite by far in this cemetery. You can see his tombstone here which doesn't even give his name. It just identifies him and you'll remember he died very very young in his early 20s. I think it was you see him here referred to only as the young English poet and down below it says here lies one whose name was writ in water. It's an amazing stone. It does show the liar which makes reference of course to the fluency and so on of his mellifluous poetry and over here a companion of his. Joseph Severn who doesn't hesitate to mention his relationship to John Keats so you Keats' name in Severn's tombstone but not in Keats's own tombs. But I showed this to you just because it's one of those more fascinating places in Rome and many of the tombs by the way, there many tombstones here that clearly are based on ancient Roman prototype. So it's a fascinating place to wander. And by the way you can do that in our own grove street cemetery where there are a number of tombs that are done very much in the Roman style.
