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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2013
The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is not by any means so well known as it deserves to be; for it is certainly one of the best preserved monuments of its kind, and it is with great pleasure that we are able to include in the present volume of the Papers of the School the interesting series of drawings by Mr. F. G. Newton. It is situated on the Via Latina, immediately before the Porta Latina of the Aurelian Wall, on the righthand side going out (Lanciani, Forma Urbis, 46), in the former Vigna Sassi: it is, however, best approached from the Via Appia, inasmuch as the custodian of the tomb of the Scipiones keeps the key.
Previous excavations in the sixteenth century are mentioned by Flaminio Vacca (Mem. 100, ed. Fea), but nothing of importance was found. The monument in question was excavated in 1831, permission having been granted at the end of January of that year: its discovery was announced in a letter of Campana's bearing date March 28 of that year (Atti del Camerlengato, Tit. iv. fasc. 1460). The columbarium was approached, not from the Via Latina, but from a branch road running S.E. and passing in front of the entrance, according to Campana (tav. i. A, frontispiece, and p. 301), while Lanciani shows pavement on the N.W. side, on which Campana, in the frontispiece, seems to represent the remains of another tomb, so that this pavement is probably modern.
page 465 note 1 Miss E. B. Van Deman kindly informs me that the brick facing, as well as most of the architectural details, is composed of sawn tiles about 0·035 metre thick, with a few square bricks 0·06 to 0·065 metre thick, the mortar being 0·015 to 0·017 metre thick, and that these measurements are quite typical of the time of Tiberius. What little is visible of the facing of a later period (on the N.E. side) consists wholly of cut tiles 0·035 to 0·038 metre thick, and must belong to the latter part of the reign of Tiberius, as the inscriptions (infra, 466) seem to indicate: there is no recurrence of a similar type of brick facing until the time of Trajan.
page 466 note 1 An idea of the original form of this side can be had from the section of the opposite side (Section BB, Plate XXXIX. cf. infra, 470).
page 466 note 2 Ibid. 5541 Dis manibus sacrum he would assign from its content to the period from Augustus to Nero (see C.I.L. vi. p. 2900). The inscription itself has disappeared.
page 466 note 3 Professor Hülsen assigns it to the end of the first or the beginning of the second century, A. D.
page 468 note 1 Within the urn was found a lamp with the inscription L. FAB(i) HERAC(li). This may be identical with that described as decorated with a bust of Isis, which was copied by Dressel in the Museo Gregoriano at the Vatican, its provenance being unknown (C.I.L. xv. 6432. a. 1). A representation of it is given by Campana tav. viii. K. (not iii. as in the text p. 276), from which it would seem that above the head of Isis are two peacocks (?) with two snakes between them.
page 468 note 2 According to Mrs. Arthur Strong, who studied the paintings of the Columbarium on my behalf.
page 469 note 1 On Greek vases of the fine period Orpheus appears in Greek costume, and on the vases of lower Italy, such as the great Amphora from Canosa in Munich (Fartwangler-Reichold, Plate X.), he wears a semi-oriental robe with Phrygian cnp. In later eclectic art he is sometimes robed, sometimes enlirely nude. (See Grnppe in Roscher's Lex. iii. S.IJ. ‘Orpheus’ 1172–3.)—E. S.
page 469 note 2 The ἀλωπεκῆ is the common headdress of the Thracians on Greek vases and is worn by Orpheus himself on the famous relief where he appears with Hermes and Eurydice. (See Gruppe, l.c.)—E. S.
page 469 note 3 It is probable likewise that the representation on the stucco frieze of the first niche on the left-hand side, though of a later date (see supra, 466), illustrates the descent of Orpheus into Hades. On the left we possibly have to imagine the figure of Heracles chaining Cerberus. On the right is the group already noted above of the Danaid and Ocnr.s with the ass, an episode which in spite of the fact lhat it was painted by Polygnotus in his Nekyia (Paus. x. 39. 2) and by one Socrates at a later date (Plin. xxxv. 137) seldom occurs in extant monuments. The rare instances have been collected by Höfer (Roscher's Lex. iii. 823 ff.), and among them our Columbarium group, together with the analogous rendering of the same subject on the well-known relief from an altar or well-head in the Galleria dei Candelabri in the Vatican (Helbig, 2nd ed. 379), has the prominent place. In the stucco picture Ocnus wears a sleeved chiton and a kind of trousers (on the Vatican relief he simply appears in classic garb with a cloak thrown round his left shoulder and lower limbs) and is in halfkneeling posture, actually twisting the rope while the ass stands in front of him gnawing it. Behind Ocnus is hilly ground which half conceals a female figure—the presumed Danaid—who ij raising with her left hand one end of a drapery which passes across her back, and then, falls to the front over her right arm; marshy ground seems indicated by the tall vegetation. This interesiing and well-nigh unique representation has been often discussed, and reproduced from Campana's publication (see especially Otto Jahn in Süchsiche Gcsellschaft der Wisseuschaften, 1856, p. 268 and Pl. III. A; Kachofen Verstich über die Gräbersymbolik der Alten, Pl. I. p. 315; the literature is collected by Höfer, he. cit.). Seeing the importance of the subject, and that ihe picture possesses besides considerable artistic merit, it is desirable that a reproduction in colour, on a larger scale than Mr. Newton's excellent drawing, should be made without loss of lime. This is the more urgent as the stucco is peculiarly friable, and the picture has evidently suffered much since Campana's day.–E. S.
