This departs from the Greek model of having equal emphasis all around the temple, where it could be viewed and approached from all directions. The temple of Caesar was an example of pycnostyle front porch intercolumniation, meaning the spacing between columns in a colonnade, as measured at the bottom of their shafts, in this case pycnostyle, which was one and a half diameters. The most famous is possibly the Mausoleum of Hadrian, a giant circular building by the river Tiber. The tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian, also called Hadrian's mole , was erected on the right bank of the Tiber, between 134 and 139 AD . Originally the mausoleum was a decorated cylinder, with a garden top and golden quadriga. Hadrian's ashes were placed here a year after his death in Baiae in 138, together with those of his wife Sabina, and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who also died in 138. Following this, the remains of succeeding emperors were also placed here, the last recorded deposition being Caracalla in 217. It was so splendid that the Popes preserved it and expanded it with additional stories and fortifications before renaming it the Castel Sant'Angelo. Just a cannon shot away from the Vatican City, it proved a convenient safe haven for the pontiff back in the days when he ran the papal states, the independent nation in Central Italy, and warred with his neighbors. It saved Pope Clement VII when Charles V sacked Rome in 1527. While it's not one of the toughest castles in the world, it is an impressive tomb, or fortification, all the same. .
Then you have the early Christians with their miles of catacombs, both in temples and underground, and the churches filled with saints' relics. There are so many tombs and monuments both pagan and Christian that sometimes it seems like Italy is entirely dedicated to death. The Renaissance was a golden age of church building. Italy while still divided into several different nations, was a rich and lustrous place.