<p>Family tomb of the Cornelii Scipiones, which faced onto a minor cross street connecting the *Via Appia with the *Via Latina, about 1 km outside the *Porta Capena (Zevi, Coarelli; Pliny, <i>NH</i> 7.114: <i>sepulcrum</i>; Val. Max. 8.14.1: <i>in monumentis Corneliae</i>). One of the most illustrious tombs of the city (Cic., <i>Tusc</i>. 1.13), it was originally built in the 3rd c. B.C., when an irregular square chamber (<i>c</i>. 13.5 x 14.5 m) was cut into the living rock to house the family’s sarcophagi, many of which survive (<i>CIL</i> VI 1284-94: dating between the early 3rd c. and 130 B.C.; for their unique philological value, Zevi). Over time, the internal chambers of the tomb were expanded (to hold over 30 burials), and in the 2nd c. B.C. a new, monumental columnar façade was erected (Coarelli). It was probably at that point that the tomb was adorned with statues of P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus (<i>cos</i>. 205, 194 B.C.), L. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus (<i>cos</i>. 190 B.C.), and the poet Q. Ennius (Livy 38.56.4; Ov., <i>Ars am.</i> 3.409-10; Pliny, <i>NH</i> 7.114; Val. Max. 8.14.1). Coarelli suggests that these were placed into three large niches framed by an engaged colonnade; this elevated theatrical façade rested upon a plain base relieved by three arched entrances to the tomb chambers (for other reconstructions: Zevi 203, Richardson).</p> <p>With the extinction of the Cornelii Scipiones in the early 1st c. B.C., the tomb was inherited by the Cornelii Lentuli, who reused it briefly under Claudius for the burial of Cornelia Gaetulica and M. Iunius Silanus Lutatius Catulus, respectively the wife and nephew of Lentulus Gaetulicus (<i>cos</i>. A.D. 26; <i>CIL</i> VI 1392, 1439; Zevi 285).</p>