The origo of C. Iulius P. f. Hor…………‥ Cornutus Tertullus, friend and colleague of the younger Pliny, has always been a matter of speculation. B. Stech thought he might have come from Africa; Professor Syme, observing the name of the dedicator of the stone which records Cornutus' career, C. Iulius Pla[n]cius Varus Cornutus, suggests Perge in Pamphylia. Professor Syme further remarks on the existence of a C. Iulius Cornutus at Perge, who set up a bilingual dedication to Nero. These names are also borne by C. Iulius Cornutus Bryonianus, ἀγωνοθέτης at the Varian games at Perge.

Groag remarked that one would not normally expect to find the praenomen of Cornutus Tertullus' father, Publius, coupled with the nomen Iulius. Cornutus Tertullus might, then, have been adopted, possibly by the C. Iulius Cornutus who set up the dedication to Nero: the gap in his nomenclature, as it appears in the inscription set up by C. Iulius Pla[n]cius Varus Cornutus, could have contained his original nomen.

Among the fragments of the tomb of the Haterii, discovered in 1848 on the Via Labicana, some three miles from Rome, and now in the Lateran Museum, are two scenes in low relief illustrating the burial. The first of these (plate IX) represents a very rare, if not unique, subject—the lying-in-state, as we should call it, in the atrium of the house. Confining our attention to the details which concern our immediate purpose, we see that the central object is the corpse of a lady extended on a high bed or bier, at the corners of which burn four tall torches standing on the ground, while at the head and foot is a lighted oil lamp on a candelabrum of rather smaller dimensions. Below, at either of the two front corners of the bier, is a small flaming vessel, probably the ‘acerra’ which Festus says was used for burning incense before the dead. In the personages who assist at the scene we may recognise the relations, the ‘praeficae’ or hired mourners, and various attendants, one of whom is apparently laying a wreath on the corpse, which is already crowned, while another on the right is about to throw more incense on to the ‘acerra.’

The city of Lanuvium, now called Civita Lavinia, stands on a beautiful site looking out westwards over its vine-clad slopes across the plain to the sea, and eastwards to the mountains beyond Velletri. The oldest city stood on the crest of the hill; on the central of the three summits was the arx and near were remains which have been connected with a temple. Moreover, excavation has disclosed something of the ancient plan of the city, a theatre, an underground aqueduct and other structures.