Pliny the Elder, quoting Varro (Naturalis Historia 36.19):
supra id quadratum pyramides stant quinque, quattuor in angulis et in medio una, imæ latæ pedum quinum septuagenum, altæ centenum quinquagenum ita fastigatæ, ut in summo orbis aëneus et petasus unus omnibus sit inpositus […] supra quem orbem quattuor pyramides insuper singulæ stant altæ pedum centenum, supra quas uno solo quinque pyramides.
Above the square stand five pyramids, four at the corners and one in the center,each seventy-five feet across at the base and a hundred and fifty feet tall, and tapered in such a way that at their peak a bronze circle and a petasus were placed over the whole set. […] Over and above this circle four individual pyramids stand, each a hundred feet tall, above which are five pyramids on one floor.
Fergusson's reconstruction of Porsena's tomb.
The tomb of Lars Porsena, as described here, contains fourteen pyramids, essentially stacked in three layers. Pliny never saw the monument and is incredulous of the description; he claims Varro’s omission of the height of the final set of pyramids is due to embarrassment at the number, which according to Etruscan tradition were equal to the rest of the structure—making it at least six hundred feet tall, and thus much taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The tomb has not been discovered, if it ever existed to begin with. There are various fanciful reconstructions of what it may have looked like, based on this description; probably the most sensible I’ve run across so far is Fergusson’s reconstruction, which is depicted here and based on remains of the similar tomb of Alyattes and the structure called alternately the Tomb of Aruns or the Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii (Sepolcro degli Orazi e Curiazi). To produce this reconstruction, however, the word pyramis ‘pyramid’ is taken not to refer to the pure geometrical figure—which would be rather difficult to tier in the manner described—but to a tapered column. (Fergusson also suggests these had varying heights as an alternative reason they were unmentioned by Varro.)
[For pyramis.]
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