The present drawing dates from after Robert's return from Italy in 1765, and can be compared to other drawings Robert made in Paris. It is from a group of cappricci of Roman ruins with figures, of which other examples are in the Fogg Museum of Art and elsewhere, V. Carlson, Hubert Robert, Drawings & Watercolors, exhib. cat., Washington, National Gallery, 1978, no. 138, illustrated.
The trophy in the left foreground is the Trophy of Octavian Augustus which, at that time, was on the balustrade of the Campidoglio. Robert had already studied it when he made a drawing of the Campidoglio during his Italian period, V. Carlson, op. cit., no. 11, illustrated. This trophy, along with the Trophy of Marius, was removed in 1590 from the Arches of the Fountainhead to be placed on the Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo.
Robert also faithfully copied the pyramid of Cestius, with the two columns adorning the front of the monument