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This is the largest catacomb network in Rome. Many of the tombs from the 1st and 2nd centuries have no Christian connection; burial of this sort was practised by several religious sects. The chambers have frescoes of both Classical and Christian scenes, including one of the earliest images of Christ as the Good Shepherd (see Exploring the Catacombs).

Rome’s first official Christian cemetery, on four levels, features some rooms decorated with stucco and frescoes, and special crypts to early popes and saints that you can also visit. The rooms and connecting passageways were hewn out of relatively soft volcanic tufa. The niches, called loculi , were designed to hold two or three bodies.

Underground cemeteries outside the city walls were created in accordance with laws at the time, not a response to suppression (it was thought ghosts of the dead could interfere with the living). However, the remains of saints Peter and Paul may have been moved here, further away from the centre, during one of the city’s periods of persecution. There are also several 4th-century mausoleums, some with exquisite frescoes.

Great orator and staunch republican (106–43 BC). His speeches grant insight into Roman political life.

Despite the lavish sets and costumes, a cast of thousands and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton steaming up the place, Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1963 epic was one of Hollywood’s first spectacular box office flops.

A 2nd-century AD commemoration of conquests along the Danube, this colossus stands 30 m (100 ft) high and is composed of 28 marble drums. The 20 spiral reliefs realistically chronicle scenes from two wars. A statue of the emperor and his wife once stood on top of the column, but it was replaced by one of St Paul in 1589.

Trajan’s Column was such a success (see Trajan’s Forum and Column) that this 29.5-m (97-ft) one was erected in AD 180–93 to honour the military career of Marcus Aurelius. The spiral of reliefs celebrates his campaigns against the Germans (169–73) on the bottom and the Sarmatians (174–76) on the top. In 1588, Pope Sixtus V replaced the statues of the emperor and his wife with that of St Paul.

Constantine (306–37) established Christianity as the state religion and moved the capital to Constantinople.

A jumble of excavations from all eras, including a piece of 13 BC crypta (porticoed courtyard) attached to a destroyed theatre. The museum’s didactic panels, which are an excellent introduction to Rome’s layer effect, plus the medieval frescoes are more interesting than the rather plain excavations underneath.