Tomb of The Scipio Family – Underground Rome Tour

The Tomb of the Scipio Family underground Rome tour begins on the “Via Appia Antica”, the “ancient Appian Way”, some hundred feet away from the “San Sebastian city door”, one of the biggest and best-preserved doors in Rome’s ancient defensive wall. The “Appian Way” was inaugurated in 312 B.C., and it had the goal of helping the expansion of the Roman Empire’s dominion over southern Italy.

On the “Appian Way” is one of the greatest archaeological findings of the Roman Republic: The Tomb of the Scipio Family. The Tomb of the Scipio Family underground Rome tour will take you to see an underground archaeological site that has enchanted visitors for centuries. When it was discovered by chance in 1780 by two brothers who were trying to expand their cellar, The Tomb of the Scipio Family immediately became known around Europe. A lot of art that was in the tombs was brought to “the Vatican Museums”, but the tombs remained an attractive underground site that was visited by many, especially young men who were participating in “the Grand Tour”, a rite of passage that consisted in a tour of Europe to see its best cities and monuments between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The Tomb of the Scipio Family was built in the beginning of the third century B.C. and was destined for the members of the illustrious family of the Scipios. We know when it was built because of inscriptions that were found in the tomb itself. The person who ordered its construction was “Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbato”, head of the family and consul of 298 B.C. Consuls were the most important and powerful political figures of the ancient Roman Republic, so the position of consul was very prestigious. In the Tomb of the Scipio Family there are inscriptions telling the history of the family and of its most famous members, like “Scipio Africanus” “scipione l’africano” who defeated “Hannibal”, the famous warrior from Carthage who invaded Italy crossing the Alps with elephants, or “Scipio Aemilianus”, who won the Third Punic War against the city of Carthage. The Tomb of the Scipio Family underground Rome tour will let you see the final resting place of this famous ancient roman family and learn all about its history.

The Tomb of the Scipio Family was dug directly inside the hill, and the tomb itself is large and organized in different sections. It is squared and divided into six galleries divided by four large pillars. At the end of the main gallery was placed the sarcophagus of the head of the family and founder of the tomb, “Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbato”. The sarcophagus present in the tombs is a replica, as the original is preserved in “the Vatican Museums”.

The Tomb of the Scipio Family was closed to visitors in 1992 and opened again in 2011, after some work to ensure its conservation and stability. romeanditaly group will let you visit this incredible monument of the ancient Roman Republic with the Tomb of the Scipio Family underground Rome tour, and you will see the final resting place of a family that greatly influenced the course of history.