It has been said that things Egyptian became fashionable in Rome in the years following the deaths of Marc Antony and Cleopatra VII, which explains the fact that someone wealthy enough to build his own personal pyramid would want it to be noticed, hence the idea of putting it next to the busiest highway of Rome. The comment would appear an exaggeration if not for the fact that Cestius was not the first to come up with the idea. Augustus’s Rome had known four pyramids : besides C. Cestius’s tomb there were the twin pyramids, decorative monuments that marked the entrance of the Via Lata, more or less where Bernini’s churches of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto stand today, in the Piazza del Popolo ; and another in the area around the Tiber and the Vatican hill that was only demolished in 1499 by Pope Alexander VI to make room for a new road (fig. 1). This last pyramid was for a time misnamed the Meta Romuli, the tomb of Romulus, while Caius’s was called Meta Remi or tomb of Remus.

fig. 1. The so-called Meta Romuli.

The Cestii were a plebeian family. Caius had exercised some power in his day, and he was proud to remind the living of his past political standing. The following words were inscribed on the pyramid itself :

(Caius Cestius, son of Lucius, of the Publilius tribe, praetor, tribune of the people, septemvir epulonum.)
The latter is a priesthood dedicated to organising sacrificial banquets for the Capitoline gods.

At least one other monument in Rome exists thanks to the munificence of Caius’s family. It seems very likely that the Lucius Cestius who built the pons Cestius (fig. 2) in 26 B.C. was an older brother, praetor in 43 B.C. (1)

fig. 2. The Pons Cestius, left, connected the island of the Tiber with the Transtevere ; it was rebuilt in the 4th century, then demolished and rebuilt at the of the 19th century when the channel and quay were widened. Photo on the right, the bridge as it appears today ; in this writer’s opinion, a sorry excuse for a Roman bridge.

Before Caius Cestius died, he named his brother Lucius and M. Agrippa as his heirs, with instructions to build the pyramid. They did so - Roman custom and law required that everything in a will be respected, partial fulfillment was liable to render the points observed null and void - though not without some difficulty. A recent edict proclaimed in Rome made it impossible to import certain Pergamene tapestries that Cestius owned. His heirs therefore had to sell them, which money helped pay for the construction of the tomb. Furthermore, as the heirs specified, it took the workers

330 days to build the tomb - i.e. more than a year, considering the number of religious holidays in the Roman calendar when professional labour was more or less out of the question.

It is a brick structure covered with white marble from Carrara. Its dimensions make it one of the tallest pyramids in the world : 36.81 metres high, 29.5 wide (roughly 118 x 97 ft). It was flanked by four columns, two of which are still in place (fig. 3). Two bronze statues on pedestals stood somewhere, perhaps before the entrance in the north wall. On each pedestal the heirs inscribed how they executed the deceased’s will (2). The burial chambre measures 4.1 by 5.85 metres (14 x 20 ft) and lies towards the west wall at the end of a corridor. The chambre’s décor had no Egyptian motifs : four frescoed panels depict four women, two standing and two seated, framed by candelabrae and lustral vases, and four winged Victories, one in each corner of the ceiling, symbolising Caius’s transport into happier spheres. (3)

His pyramid is the only one in Rome which has survived beyond the 16^th century ; it did so because it was incorporated into Aurelian’s new wall in the last quarter of the third century. In the twelfth century, the marble casing was repaired. In 1662/63, Pope Alexander VII ordered an examination of the interior. The frescoes were seen to be in bad repair ; they were not restored. Caius Cestius’s urn and remains are lost.

1. One wonders what the relationship was between this Lucius Cestius and the Greek sophist Lucius Cestius Pius whom Livius says was so scornful of Cicero.
2. Both bases are exposed in the Capitoline Museums. They were not inside the cella but outside, supporting bronze statues ; M. F.’s casa is not an attempt at reconstitution !
3. Sketches of the cella’s decoration can be seen but not photographed in the museum of the Porta San Paolo, next to the pyramid.

Sources
Della Portella, I., Subterranean Rome, Arsenale Editrice, San Giovanni Lupatoto, 2002.
Enciclopedia Italiana, art. “Cestio”, vol. IX, Rome, 1919.
Nash, E., Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome, vol. II, pp. 321 - 323.
Steinby, Eva M., “Sepulcrum Caius Cestius” in Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae, 4 volumes, Rome, 1999.

See also Platner-Ashby 478, 607.

All photographs are the author’s.