The site of the Scipioni tomb was assumed to be between via Latina and via Appia, as mentioned by ancient writers :"outside Porta Capena, at less than a mile from the city". The tomb was discovered in 1780 by the Sassi brothers, the owners of the land at the time who, while desperately searching for precious objects and inscriptions, tampered with the monument.
In 1926, the Sovraintendenza del Comune di Roma reinforced and restored the monument by adjusting the copies of the funerary inscriptions as related to the sarcophagi, the originals of which were removed.
The tomb, dug out of a natural outcrop, belonged to the family of Corneli Scipioni, one of the most ancient and celebrated patrician families of ancient Rome.
It was built in the early decades of the third century B.C. by Lucio Cornelio Scipione Barbato, who was consul in 298 BC to emphasize his importance as the family founder. His sarcophagus was placed in a dominant position at the back of the central corridor (the original is to be found in the Musei Vaticani together with other funerary inscriptions).
The tomb, almost square in form, has vaults supported by four large pilasters which divide the sides into four galleries made of tuff and two additional galleries crossing perpendicularly at the centre.
The sarcophagi of the Scipioni were arranged around the walls and enclosed therein -between the third and the mid-second century B.C. - excluding Scipioni Nasica and Scipione Africanus (buried in the villa di Literno) who were not mentioned in the inscriptions.
Over the years, because of lack of space, the tomb was enlarged between 150 and 130 BC, by opening a new gallery on the side facing the Appia, as it lay in a different direction and probably didn't communicate with the main hypogeum previously. The monumental facade was erected, probably the work of Scipione Emiliano, during the same. It had a high podium leading to three symmetrical entrances, of which only the one in Aniene tuff blocks of the new hypogeum, remains.
Above the podium, traces of frescoes depict historical scenes and a line of tuff semi-columns probably framed statues of the most famous members of the Scipioni line: the Africano, Asiatico, and the great poet Ennio. (Livio wrote that their portraits decorated the tomb).
With the extinction of the Scipioni at the beginning of the empire, the tomb was inherited by the Corneli Lentuli family who used the site for burials and cremation again, probably to establish a connection with the tradition of the important Republican family.
|
 | | | I Municipio
Rione XIX - Celio
Regio I - Porta Capea
Via di Porta San Sebastiano
|  |
|
