Fragments on Egyptian Literature, 119 



The series of hieroglyphical legends of Roman Emperors is 

 thus extended from Augustus, or the Christian era, to the 

 beginning of the third century. I am not aware, however, 

 that a Roman name, prior to that of Augustus, has been, as 

 yet, read in hieroglyphical characters by any one but myself; 

 and yet it is a fact, that there is a tablet in the British Mu- 

 seum, bearing the name of the first and greatest of the Caesars. 

 The gentlemen who have published the valuable paper on 

 Egyptian Monuments in the Transactions of the Royal Society 

 of Literature, have, indeed, explained this name, which occurs 

 in their thirty-fourth figure, as Verus, or Severus ; they think, 

 but are not positive, that the letters compose the word 

 BEERES. The first, however, a feather, is A, E, or I ; it 

 has neither the shape nor the reversed position of the feather 

 that represents S ; the third is an L or R ; the fourth an I ; 

 and the fifth and last an S. The last two characters, at the 

 end of foreign proper names, universally represent lUS or 

 iEUS, never a simple US. The characters, therefore, what- 

 ever may be the value of the second of them, cannot possibly 

 represent either of the names suggested in the paper ; nor is 

 there any which was borne by a Caesar, (and the name which 

 accompanies this is, unquestionably, *' Caesar,") which can 

 correspond with the characters already specified, except 

 AELIUS and lULlUS. The second character is a leg. In 

 the name ** Berenice," it represents a B, as well as in some 

 other decisive instances ; it is, therefore, unlikely, that it 

 should come to represent an E, or rather to be superfluous, as 

 would be the case if the former word were intended ; but B, 

 V, and U are similar letters, and easily interchanged ; and, in 

 point of fact, are actually interchanged in phonetic hierogly- 

 phics. There can, therefore, be no objection to the name being 

 read lULlUS ; nor is there any other name to which it can 

 correspond. 



I have dwelt, perhaps, too much on the component parts of 

 this name, but 1 was induced to do so, partly by the interest- 

 ing nature of the discovery, and partly by the strangeness, as 

 it must appear, of a name, which has been so long before the 

 pubhc, and which is written in an alphabet, which has been for 

 so many years, to a great extent, known, not having been cor- 

 rectly read until now. Of the contents of the tablet I can say 



