Vatican Museums

This granite sarcophagus, in the form of an altar with Ionic volutes on the sides of the lid and a Doric frieze on the case, follows the Hellenistic models of southern Italy. It is the most ancient and monumental of the sarcophagi in the tomb of the powerful Republican Scipione family, and holds the remains of its likely founder, Lucio Cornelio Scipione Barbato, ancestor of Scipio Africanus, who led his troops to victory in the Second Punic War. The deceased, consul in 298 B.C., is referred to in the inscription painted in red on the lid and in the eulogy inscribed on the case. This latter praises his valour and lists his roles and mandates (consul, censor, aedile), and his conquests in Sannio and Lucania, ancient regions that correspond approximately to present-day Molise and Basilicata. The sarcophagus dates from 280-270 B.C., while the eulogy was added around the beginning of the second century B.C., preceded by an older, subsequently erased text. The chronological succession of the three inscriptions is unclear.