Casal Rotondo is the largest tomb on the

Appian Way The Appian Way (Latin and Italian language, Italian: Via Appia) is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient Roman Republic, republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is in ...

, to the southeast of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. A small farmhouse has been constructed on the top.

History

The structure is found at approximately the VIth mile of the ancient Appian Way. The name comes from the fact that the tomb is round and because a farmhouse (casale) was built on the top in the Middle Ages, when it belonged to the

Savelli family The House of Savelli (de Sabellis in documents) were a rich and influential Roman aristocratic family who rose to prominence in the 13th century. The family included several popes, senators and condottieri. They dominated the city in rivalry wit ...

and was one of a system of watchtowers along the Appian Way. The mausoleum dates from around 30 B.C.E. It is a large circular building with a diameter of 35 m, decorated with a frieze and, originally, had a cone-shaped roof. The base offered seats where travellers could rest out of the sun. Near the mausoleum, the archaeologist

Luigi Canina Luigi Canina (23 October 1795 – 17 October 1856) was an Italian archaeologist and architect. Together with Giuseppe Valadier, he was a leading figure of archaeologically correct Neoclassicism in early-19 century Rome. He was the second recipient ...

(1795-1856) built a brick wall containing architectural fragments. These were originally thought to have been from the Casal Rotondo but this is now disputed. Canina deduced from a small piece of inscription with the name "Cotta" that the monument had been built by M. Aurelius Cotta Messallinus for his father,

Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus (64 BC – AD 8 or c. 12) was a Roman general, author, and patron of literature and art. Family Corvinus was the son of a consul in 61 BC, Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger,Syme, R., ''Augustan Aristocracy'', p. ...

, but this inscription and other architectural fragments are now assumed to have come from a smaller monument at the site, and they may have nothing to do with Messalla Corvinus.M. Marcelli, "IV MIGLIO, 14. Casal Rotondo", in: Susanna Le Pera Buranelli & Rita Turchetti, edd., Sulla Via Appia da Roma a Brindisi: le fotografie di Thomas Ashby: 1891-1925, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2003, p. 77 Casal rotondo2

References

External links

* {{Monuments of Rome Ancient Roman buildings and structures in Rome Buildings and structures in Rome Mausoleums in Rome Round buildings

History

See also

References

External links