148 



authority he grounds the above anecdote. It is not to be found 

 among the extraordinary mass of evidence, collected from writers 

 both sacred and profane, which Rendle has accumulated to 

 demonstrate that Tiberius was a Christian emperor ;* but it is 

 proper to observe of the bust, that, although it does not appear 

 in the plate of the fac simile, there is in the original a mani- 

 fest fulness on the temples that plainly indicates a large quan- 

 tity of hair, descending from the crown along the sides of the 

 head. 



It remains to observe upon the conjecture, that the metal 

 of which this medal consists is Corinthian brass, that such is 

 altogether wild. This mixture was accidentally formed by the 

 fusion of metals at the burning of the Temple of Corinth ; 

 and it was all of it converted, at the time, into statues, urns, 

 and such like. Pinkerton asserts, that he never met with any af 

 it in coins. 



To conclude, I cannot but consider this medal to be a relic of 



* With relation to resemblances of Christ, Theophanes, in Chronographia, p. 41, makes 

 mention of a statue of our Lord, that was in the City of Csesarea Philippi. It was said to have 

 been erected to his honour by the woman whose issue of blood he healed. This was destroyed 

 by Julian, who placed his own statue in its stead. The first plate of the Archaeologia, vol. i. con. 

 tains a picture of our Saviour, taken from a painting of great antiquity, precisely similar to that 

 upon our medal, and to the traditional portraits of which we have spoken. Beneath it is the 

 following inscription : " This present figure is the similitude of our Lord Jhii oure Savior, ira- 

 " printed in aniiruld (? emerald) by the predecessors of the Create Turke, and sent to the Pope 

 " Innocent VIII. at the cost of the Create Turke, for a token for his cause, to redeem his 

 " brother that was takyn presoner.'' Pope Innocent died in 1492. We are not further in- 

 formed concerning this interesting portrait, in the letter that accompanies it: not even of where 

 it was found, or why the inscription is in English ; but, from this latter circumstance, I suspect it 

 to have been a more modern copy of the original sent to Innocent VIII. 



