The inscription (1929) can be read outside the remains of the Tomb of the Scipiones, or Scipios (Sepulcrum Scipionum), in Via di Porta San Sebastiano 11 (along the first part of the ancient Appian Way). The text was authored by Raffaello Santarelli.

The inscription is carved in Roman square capitals, retraced with red colouring (‘rubricated’) on a plate fixed on a wall at the right of the access ramp; because the plate is in grey volcanic tuff (peperino), that is a very friable rock, the text is in a bad state of legibility and preservation. The final two lines, carved in charters of smaller dimensions, are partially lost but could be supplemented thanks to archival records.

The Scipiones (Cornelii Scipiones) were one of the most prestigious and important patrician families of Rome in the third and second centuries BC; the defeater and destroyer of Carthage (Scipio Africanus and Scipio Aemilianus) and the winner on the Syrian kingdom (Scipio Asiaticus) belonged to it, although none of them was buried in the Sepulcrum Scipionum. The monument was founded in honor of the Scipiones by L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, who was consul in 298 BC. It is an underground tomb (hypogeum) consisting of tunnels dug in the tuff and containing ca. 30 sarcophagi.

The inscription recalls works conducted between 1926 and 1929 with the purpose of making the tomb accessible to the public; the inauguration of the monument took place on 21 April, the birthday of Rome. The text has phrasings typical of Santarelli’s style, including the formula lictorii nominis to indicate the Fascist era (also in the inscription of the Trajan’s Market of the same year), the title praefectus Urbi to indicate Rome’s governors Filippo Cremonesi (1872–1942) and Francesco Boncompagni Ludovisi (1886–1955), and the verbs inchoare and absolvere to indicate the beginning and the end of the work (cf. opus incepit absolvendum in the inscription of the Theatre of Marcellus).

The text emphasizes the importance of the work to give back dignity to this archaeological site (dignius reduci in cultum) and to make modern Italians aware of the example of their ancient forebears (quo Italorum virtuti novissimae maiorum praeclara facinora exstent imitanda). The Scipiones are made to represent Roman imperialism and expansion in the Mediterranean Sea, which the Fascist regime aspired to emulate.

The immortal glory of the Scipiones was commemorated also by an Italian inscription placed on the wall along Via di Porta San Sebastiano 9–11. It is flanked by three fasces at each side (still extant). It quotes three Italian verses of the poet Petrarch (1304–1374): ‘I sassi dove fur chiuse le membra / di ta’ che non saranno senza fama / se l’universo pria non si dissolve’ (‘The stones wherein were closed the limbs / of those men who will not remain without fame / if the universe does not dissolve before’) (Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta 53.32–34). The inscription survives in fragmentary form.

Bibliography

Colini, Antonio Maria. 1929. ‘La sistemazione del Sepolcro degli Scipioni’. Capitolium 5 (4): 182–95.

Nastasi, Antonino. 2019. Le iscrizioni in latino di Roma Capitale (1870-2018). Rome: Edizioni Quasar, 311–13.

Antonino Nastasi