Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1875 — “A Road of Tombs.” [ARTICLE]

“A Road of Tombs.”

Col. Forney writes from Rome: “ Everybody has read about the Appian Way. It was the great line of communieation between Itome and Southern Italy. Before you reaeh the old ,road you see the colossal ruins of the baths of Caracalla, which occupy the space of nearly a mile and accommodated 1,600 bathers at a time; but this is surpassed by the size of the bath of Diocletian, which accommodated 3,200 bathers at a time. The baths were the favorite resorts of the poets and philosophers, and were adorned with porticos and vestibules for the idle and libraries for the learned; they were also decorated w ith the finest objects of art in painting and sculpture, and placed in the midst of fountains and shaded walks. Along the Appian Way were built the tombs containing the urns with the ashes of hundreds and thousands of Romans who lived ahd died thousands of years ago. The-e tombs are temples above ground, built of solid stone walls, inside of which were placed the urns, while outside were •caned the "beautiful decorations and inscriptions, oftentimes including ex3 visile statuary to designate the ead. Many of their bust* were found centuries after inside, and as you now ride along this still solid road you see the remains of costly sepulchers with the fragments of their marble me-

mortals and highly-wrought statues. You would think that this road of the tombs would be rather a mournful affair, but the Romans. had strange notions of death. Their funerals were jollv feasts and they liked to have their villas and their merry meetings near the houses of their departed relations and ancestors. For miles the relics of the graves extend along the Appian Way. One of the most curious of these sepulchers is the tomb of Cwceiia Metella, erected sixtyseven years before Christ to the memory of Caecelia, the daughter of Quintus Metellus, the conqueror of Crete and wife of Crassus. It is a circular tower, of massive construction and enormous strength and has seen many changes. It was a fortress or feudal stronghold in the middle ages and sustained great injury in the sixteenth century when Rome was besieged. To-day it stands in solid and solitary grandeur as if grimly defying the ravages of another 1,900 years."