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p477 Sepulcrum Bibuli

Article on p477 of

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby):
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,
London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

Black-and‑white images are from Platner; any color photos are mine © William P. Thayer

Behind the ancient tomb, the modern Monument to Vittorio Emanuele.

Sepulcrum Bibuli: the tomb of C. Publicius Bibulus, a plebeian aedile, erected (or very likely restored: see CP 1924, 78) in the last century of the republic by decree of the senate (CIL VI.139 = I2.834) at the base of the Capitoline hill,a on the east side of the via Flaminia, about 100 metres north of the probable site of the porta Fontinalis. It was a rectangular structure of travertine, and tufa where the stone was not visible, consisting of a stereobate and upper portion. The façade (the south-west side), together with the beginning of the south-east side, is still preserved. Its stereobate is 4.76 metres high and 6.50 wide,1 and above this are four Tuscan pilasters with a fragment of the entablature. The central space between the pilasters was probably a niche for a statue; the side spaces were closed and had projecting tablets for inscriptions. The frieze was decorated with garlands, rosettes and ox-skulls. The inscription was cut on the two upper courses of the stereobate and repeated on at least two sides (for full description, see Phil. 1867, 82‑91; especially Delbrueck, Hellenist. Bauten II. 1912, 37‑41, and literature cited; Jord. I.1.207; HJ 491; NS 1907, 411‑414; TF 144).

The Authors' Note:

1 3.50 in NS cit. is a misprint. The whole of the stereobate was brought to light during the excavations of 1907 for the first time since the Roman period, but was soon covered up again, only the upper courses being left above ground.

Thayer's Note:

a by decree of the senate at the base of the Capitoline hill: It was customary among the ancient Romans that tombs should be built outside the walls of the city, yet the tomb of Bibulus is one of the very few ancient Roman tombs of the historic period that appears to be sited within the walls of Rome. I have been unable so far to find out why an exception might have been made in this case.

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p477 Sepulcrum Bibuli

Article on p477 of

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby): A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

The Authors' Note:

Thayer's Note:

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby):
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,
London: Oxford University Press, 1929.