A remarkable feature of ancient funeral eloquence is found in the imprecations addressed to the passer, to insure the safety of the tomb and its contents:[125]—
"Any one who injures my tomb or steals its ornaments, may he see the death of all his relatives."
"Whoever steals the nails from this structure, may he thrust them into his eyes."
A grumbler wrote on a gravestone found in the Vigna Codini:—
"Lawyers and the evil-eyed keep away from my tomb."
It is manifestly impossible to make the reader acquainted with all the discoveries in this department of Roman archæology since 1870. The following specimens from the viæ Aurelia, Triumphalis, Salaria, and Appia seem to me to represent fairly well what is of average interest in this class of monuments.
Via Aurelia. Under this head I record the tomb of Platorinus, which was found in 1880 on the banks of the Tiber, near La Farnesina, although, strictly speaking, it belongs to a side road running from the Via Aurelia to the Vatican quarters, parallel with the stream. The discovery was made in the following circumstances:—
Ancient house in the Farnesina Gardens.