The Pyramid of Cestius

The Pyramid of Cestius is one of ancient Rome’s most unusual monuments. Built around 12 BCE as the tomb of the Roman magistrate Gaius Cestius Epulo, it reflects the fascination with Egyptian culture that spread through Rome after the conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt in 30 BCE. More than 2,000 years later, it remains one of the best-preserved monuments of the ancient city.

Very little is known about the man buried inside the pyramid. Gaius Cestius Epulo is identified in the inscription on the monument’s facade as a praetor, tribune of the plebs, and a member of the septemviri epulonum, one of the seven state priests responsible for organizing public religious banquets. According to the inscription, the pyramid was completed by his heirs in accordance with his will around 12 BCE.

The Pyramid of Cestius stands near the junction of the ancient Via Ostiensis, the main road connecting Rome with the port of Ostia, and another road that led toward the Tiber River near the route of today’s Via Marmorata. The monument measures 100 Roman feet (about 30 meters) on each side and rises 125 Roman feet (about 36 meters) high. It was built from Roman concrete and faced with white marble.

Inside is a rectangular burial chamber with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, reached through a narrow passage. Although the monument’s shape reflects Egyptian influence, the painted decorations inside are distinctly Roman, featuring delicate floral designs, urns, and decorative panels rather than Egyptian motifs.

The Pyramid of Cestius was not the only pyramid built in ancient Rome. At least one other pyramidal tomb, known as the Meta Romuli, once stood between present-day Castel Sant’Angelo and the Vatican. It was demolished during the sixteenth century, and much of its marble was reused in the construction of the new St. Peter’s Basilica. Excavations beneath the Vatican have also uncovered Egyptian-inspired funerary decorations, demonstrating that Egyptian influences had become fashionable among some members of Rome’s elite.

Scholars continue to debate what inspired these Roman pyramids. Some believe they were modeled after the steep-sided pyramids of Nubia rather than the larger pyramids of Egypt. Rome encountered these monuments during its military campaigns along Egypt’s southern frontier in the late first century BCE. Some historians suggest that Gaius Cestius may have seen Nubian pyramids during these campaigns, although no evidence directly links him to them.

During the third century CE, the Pyramid of Cestius was incorporated into the Aurelian Walls, where it became part of Rome’s defensive fortifications. Its inclusion in the walls helped preserve the monument through the centuries.

In 1716, the area behind the pyramid became the site of the Non-Catholic Cemetery for Foreigners, also known as the Protestant Cemetery, because it lay outside the city walls. Among those buried there are the English Romantic poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. In 1887, Thomas Hardy visited the cemetery and wrote Rome at the Pyramid of Cestius Near the Graves of Shelley and Keats, reflecting on the irony that Gaius Cestius is remembered almost entirely because of the monument he left behind. Today, the nearby Piramide metro station also takes its name from the ancient tomb.

The Pyramid of Cestius underwent a major restoration in 2013. The project cleaned the marble exterior, conserved the interior frescoes, and improved the monument’s long-term preservation, allowing visitors to appreciate one of the best-preserved examples of ancient Rome’s fascination with Egypt.

Bibliography:

Claridge, Amanda. Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. 1st ed. Oxford University Press, 1998.

Gibson, James, ed. The Variorum Edition of the Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy. Macmillan, 1979.

Lacovara, Peter. “Pyramids and Obelisks Beyond Egypt.” Aegyptiaca: Journal of the History of the Reception of Ancient Egypt 2 (2018): 124-127.

Sorek, Susann. “Egyptian Influences in Rome.” In The Emperors’ Needles: Egyptian Obelisks and Rome, 1st ed. Liverpool University Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5vj9pf.12.