scription has been found within or near this herooen,
there are reasons to prove that it was the family tomb of Regilla,
Herodes, and their six children. A more beautiful and interesting
structure is hardly to be found in the Campagna, and I wonder why so
few visit it. Perhaps it is better that it should be so, because its
present owner has just rented it for a pig-pen.

Higher up the valley, on a spur of the hill above the springs of
Egeria, stands the Temple of Ceres and Faustina, now called S. Urbano
alla Caffarella. It belongs to the Barberinis, who take good care of
it, as well as of the sacred grove of ilexes which covers the slope to
the south of the springs. The vestibule is supported by four marble
pillars, but, the intercolumniations having been filled up by Urban
VIII. in 1634, the picturesqueness of the effect is destroyed. Here
Herodes dedicated to the memory of his wife a statue, minutely
described in the second Triopian inscription, alluded to above. Early
Christians took possession of the temple and consecrated it to the
memory of Pope Urbanus, the martyr, whose remains were buried close
by, in the _crypta magna_ of the Catacombs of Praetextatus. Pope
Paschal I. caused the Confession of the church to be decorated with
frescoes representing the saint from whom it was named, with the
Virgin Mary, and S. John. In the year 1011 the panels between the
pilasters of the cella were covered with paintings illustrating the
lives and martyrdoms of Caecilia, Tiburtius, Valerianus and Urbanus,
and, although injured by restorations, these paintings form the most
important contribution to the history of Italian art in the eleventh
century. We have therefore under one roof, and within the four walls
of this temple, the names of Ceres, Faustina, Herodes and Annia
Regilla, coupled with those of S. Caecilia and S. Valerianus, of
Paschal I., and Pope Barberini; decorations in stucco and brick of the
time of Marcus Aurelius; paintings of the ninth and eleventh
centuries; and all this variety of wealth intrusted to the care of a
good old hermit, whose dreams are surely not troubled by the
conflicting souvenirs of so many events.

I need not remind the reader that the name of Egeria, given to the
nymphaeum below the temple, is of Renaissance origin. The grotto in
which, according to the legend, and to Juvenal's description, Numa
held his secret meetings with the nymph Egeria, was situated within
the line of the walls of Aure