demanded the head of Cleander, a Phrygian slave whom Commodus had
placed at the helm of state because he pandered to his master's vices,
and gratified him with rich presents obtained by the vilest means. At
the entreaties of his sister and his favourite concubine, the emperor
sacrificed his minister, who was with him at the time, sharing in his
guilty pleasures; and threw out, from one of the windows of the villa,
the bloody head among the crowd, who gratified their vengeance by
tossing it about like a football. Here, too, the wretched emperor
himself was first poisoned by a cup of wine given to him by his
favourite mistress Marcia, on his return weary and thirsty from the
Colosseum; and then, as the poison operated too slowly, was strangled
in his heavy drugged sleep by his favourite gladiator Narcissus. One
could not look upon the bare masses of ruins around without thinking
of the terrible orgies that took place there, and of the shout of
enthusiastic joy when the news reached Rome that the detested tyrant
was no more, and the empire was free to breathe again. The fate of
Ahab, who coveted the vineyard of Naboth, overtook him; and but for
the interference of his successor, the maddened populace would have
dragged his corpse through the streets and flung it into the Tiber.

A very extraordinary tomb arrests the attention near the ruins of this
villa. It looks like an inverted pyramid, or a huge architectural
mushroom. This appearance has been given to the monument by the
removal of the large blocks of stone which formed the basement,
leaving the massive superincumbent weight to be supported on a very
narrow stalk of conglomerate masonry. It is a striking proof of the
extraordinary solidity and tenacity of Roman architecture, defying the
laws of gravitation. It is called the sepulchre of the Metelli, the
family of Cæcilia Metella; but this is a mere guess, as there is no
record or inscription to identify it. Next to this singular monument