Behind the round chapel is
THE COLUMBARIA OF HYLAS AND VITALINE.
The columbaria were underground chambers, containing niches in the walls, in which were placed the urns containing the ashes of those who were burned. As the niche was like a dove's nest in shape, it was called a "columbarium," the whole tomb a "columbaria." This one was discovered by the Marchese Campana, and is carefully preserved. Here were buried the freedmen of Augustus while Hylas and Vitaline were the custodians.
Returning to the Via Appia, the second gate on the left admits to the
CHAPEL OF THE SEVEN SLEEPERS,
dedicated to S. Gabriel and the Sleepers of Ephesus. It was decorated in fresco by the same Beno and Maria de Rapiza who did the frescoes in S. Clement's towards the end of the eleventh century.
Beyond, a tall cypress tree marks the entrance to the (No. 13)
TOMB OF THE SCIPIOS.
The vaults, hewn in the tufa, with the traces of a cornice over the entrance arch, and the stump of a Doric column, are all that now remain. The tomb was discovered in 1780; and the bones of the consul, found in good preservation, were carried to Padua, where they were interred by Senator Quirini. Six sarcophagi were found, and several recesses for more bodies; the original inscriptions were removed to the Vatican and placed in the vestibule of the Belvedere.
Lucius Scipio Barbatus, his son; Aula Cornelia, wife of Cneius Scipio Hispanus, a son of Scipio Africanus, senior; Lucius Cornelius, son of Asiaticus; Cornelius Scipio Hispanus and his son Lucius, were buried here. Africanus senior was buried at Liternum.