Tomb of Caecilia Metella

Tomba di Cecilia Metella

Mausoleum of Caecilia Metella

Heliog Chauvet

Rome, Lazio, Italy

on the Appian Way

Italy

ca. 50 BCE (creation)

1st century BCE

restored elevation of façade

current perspective

restored section, elevations

perspectives

sections

Caecilia Metella , or Caecilia Metella Cretica (fl. 69 BC) was daughter of the consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus, who was consul 69 BC, and a daughter-in-law of Crassus. The tomb is of the type having a cylindrical body set on a square base. This cylinder, faced with travertine marble and crowned with a marble frieze in relief with festoons between bucranes, is 11 metres high and 29.5 metres in diameter. In 1302 the Caetani family incorporated the tomb in their castle (Castrum Caetani) which they equipped with battlements. The fortifications, stretching along both sides of the Via Appia, defended the strategic approach to the city.

Architectural Documentation

tombs

funerary structures

illustrations

Late Republican

Roman

architectural exteriors

death or burial

rulers and leaders

funerary

Seure, Georges. Monuments antiques, relevés et restaurés par les architectes pensionnaires de l’Académie de France à Rome

notices archéologiques par Georges Seure. Paris: C. Massin, 1910, 181.

Public Domain