Torre Selce
About
A massive concrete Roman tomb mound, faced with travertine and marble, rose at the seventh mile of the Appian Way. Local legend once claimed it as Pompey the Great's grave, though he was actually buried in his family's mausoleum in the Alban Hills. In the 12th century the Astalli family stacked a stone-and-flint watchtower directly on top of the ruin, giving the site its name. That medieval tower still crowns the ancient burial mound.
What happened here
The tomb is built where the traffic is: on the road out of town, facing the carriageway, close enough to read at walking pace. That is the design brief. Inside there may be a single chamber for one family or niches for dozens, with cremation urns or, increasingly, bodies laid out. Outside there is a portrait, an inscription giving the dead their offices and their years, and often a bench, because visitors come back. The family returns on the anniversary and at the February festival of the dead, brings wine and food, and eats a meal at the graveside. Endowments are left to keep it up and lawsuits follow when they are not honoured. A grand tomb is the last public building a family gets to commission.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →