Sepolcro di Caio Publicio Bibulo

The travertine and tuff monument, of which only part of the façade survives, is on the left of the Vittoriano, and was spared from demolition during the construction of the building. It was originally located on the right of Via Lata, a bit outside the Porta Fontinalis of the Servian walls. During the Middle ages the monument was incorporated in the façade of a house, as testified by drawings of the 15th century. It is a square funerary monument upon a high base, now partly buried, comprising eight rows of travertine blocks on which is carved an inscription for Caio Publicio Bibulo, “the people’s builder”. The Senate and the people of Rome decided to give him a land grant for a sepulchre for him and his descendants. The façade of the overlooking cella is divided by four Tuscan pilasters that frame a window in the centre and two tables on each side. On top is a single block of the architrave decorated with a frieze of festoons with bunch of grapes, apples and bucrania.
The sepulchre dates back to the first half of the first century BC.