20() THE PYRAMIDS. 
antient world, and we had not the evidence 
afforded by the Soros in the principal Pyramid, 
a greater degree of difficulty might oppose the 
undertaking. But, in addition to the testimony 
offered by this remarkable relic, we are enabled, 
by collateral evidences derived from other 
countries, to establish, beyond all controversy, 
the truth of their sepulchral origin. It has been 
already shewn, that, of themselves, they con- 
stitute but remaining traces of a custom com- 
mon to all the nations of antiquity'. An antient 
Tumulus for men of princely rank seems very 
generally to have consisted of three parts; the 
Soros, the Pile, or Heap, and the Stele. Of 
these, Homer mentions two at once; as being 
those parts of a Tumulus which were externally 
visible®. As the practice occasionally varied 
among different nations, only one of these was 
used to denote an antient burying-place. In 
Asia Minor, the Soros, of gigantic proportion, 
sometimes stood alone, without the Pile and the 
(l) " Apud majores, nobiles, aut sub montibus, aut in montibus, 
sepeliebantur ; uncle natum est, ut supra cadavera aut Pyramides 
iierent, aut ingentes collocarentur, columnae." Servii Cumment. in 
l^irgil. 
(3) Xv/ifoM n, 2t«a.-/) re. II. n. 45G. See Greek Marbles, *p. 2. Ca7nb. 
i8Q9. 
