On the right of the road, in a vineyard, are several Columbaria
belonging to the family of Cæcilius, an obscure Latin poet, who was a
predecessor of Terence, and died one hundred and sixty-eight years
before Christ; and on the left are the Columbaria of the freedmen of
Augustus and Livia, divided into three chambers. These last when
discovered excited the utmost interest among antiquarians; but they
are now stripped of all their contents and characteristic decorations,
and the inscriptions, about three hundred in number, are preserved in
the museums of the Capitol and Vatican. On the same side of the road,
in a vineyard, a Columbarium was discovered in 1825 belonging to the
Volusian family, who flourished in the reign of Nero; one of whose
members, Lucius Volusius, who lived to the age of ninety-three, was
extolled on account of his exemplary life by Tacitus.

On the same plateau is the entrance to the celebrated Catacombs of St.
Calixtus. It is on the right-hand side of the road, about a mile and a
quarter from the present gate, and near where stood the second
milestone on the ancient Appian Way. A marble tablet over the door of
a vineyard shaded with cypresses points it out to the visitor. The
rock out of which this and all the Roman Catacombs were hewn seems as
if created specially for the purpose. Recent geological observations
have traced in the Campagna volcanic matter produced at different
periods, when the entire area of Rome and its vicinity was the seat of
active plutonic agency. This material is of varying degrees of
hardness. The lowest and oldest is so firm and compact that it still
furnishes, as it used to do, materials for building; the foundations
of the city, the wall of Romulus, and the massive blocks on which the
Capitol rests, being formed of this substance. Over this a later
stratum was deposited called _tufa granolare_, consisting of a similar