196

HISTORY OF ENGINEERING.

Book I.

Fig. 227.

Fig. 228.

SECTIONS.

falls into the Mediterranean Sea , south of Mola di Gaieta, where was Cicero ’s famousFormianum Villa.

The Tombs of the Romans in many instances were in imitation of that which QueenArtemisia raised at Halicarnassus in honour of her husband Mausolus , which ranked amongthe most celebrated constructed by the ancients. All the towns of Italy had beyond thewalls avenues or roads, along which the inhabitants were buried; at Pompeii the Streetof the Tombs conducts the traveller to the city gates.

Tumuli were raised over the dead by Greeks, Etruscans , and Romans. In Greece thebodies were first consumed, the ashes put into an urn or earthen vessel, and then depositedin a vault or excavation, made a little below the surface of the ground, sometimes in therecesses of rocks. At Syracuse and Agrigentum many of these arc found in the wallswhich surround them, although the sarcophagi or urns, once within them, containing theburnt remains, have long since disappeared.

In Rome , the practice of burning was not very early introduced; at first the bodies wereconsigned to their native earth, although among the Etruscans we find mention made ofthe funeral pile. Sylla, it is said, introduced the custom of burning the body, having fearthat his might be ill treated after death. In the Roman sepulchres that have been ex-amined, the skeleton is found with the arms laid close to the sides, a vase with a narrowneck placed upon the breast, another on each side of the head, one on each hand, and onebetween the legs; a dish once containing eggs, fruit, or birds, and a coin, are also metwith. Neither the Greeks nor Romans were allowed burial within their walls, and