they
were only copies, the originals having been removed to the Vatican,
where the sarcophagus of Lucius Scipio Barbatus and the bust of the
poet Ennius may now be seen. The very bones of the illustrious dead
have been carried off, and after a series of adventures they are now
deposited in a beautiful little monument in the grounds of a nobleman
near Padua. The gold signet-ring of Scipio Africanus, with a victory
in intaglio on a cornelian stone, found in the tomb of his son, who
was buried here, is now in the possession of Lord Beverley. It must be
remembered, however, that Scipio Africanus, the most illustrious of
his family, and the noblest of all the Roman names, was not interred
in this mausoleum. A strange mystery hung over the manner of his death
and the place of his burial even in Livy's time. Some said that he
died at Rome, and others at Liternum. A fragment of an inscription was
found near the little lake at the latter place, beside which he
resided during the dignified exile of his later years, which contained
only the words--"... ta Patria ... ne ..." Antiquarians have filled
out this sentence into the touching epigraph recorded by Livy, which
Scipio himself wished to be put upon his tomb: "Ingrata Patria, ne
ossa quidem, mea habes," "My ungrateful country, thou hast not even my
bones." Empty as the tomb of the Scipios looks, no one can behold it
without feelings of profound veneration. The history of the most
heroic period of ancient Rome is linked with this tomb; and all the
romance of the Punic Wars, of Hannibal and Hasdrubal, pass before the
mind's eye, as one gazes upon the desecrated chambers where the son
and relatives of the great conqueror had reposed in death.

Within a short distance of the tomb of the Scipios are the most
celebrated of all the Columbaria of Rome. Previous to the fifth
century of Rome, the bodies of the dead were buried entire, and
deposited in sarcophagi; but after that period cremation became the
universal custom. The ashes and calcined bones were preserved in
_ollae_, or little jars like common garden flower-pots, made of the
same kind of coarse red earthenware, with a lid attached. These jars
were deposited in rows of little niches sunk in the brickwork all
round the walls of the tomb, resembling the nests in a pigeon-house;
hence the origin of the name. One tomb was thus capable of containing
the remains of a large number of persons; no less than six thousand of
the freedmen