172 ROMAN PAVEMENTS AND INTRECci. 



that cannot be matched in these ensigns. Illustration XII. shows 

 only a dozen out of many scores. The eight streamers that 

 issue from the limb of a circle two feet in diameter on the 

 Isurium pavement indicate, not a star, but the solar disc, with 

 a radial glory closely resembling that on the Tennessee gorget. 



The Lotus, ultimately transformed by Christians into a lily and 

 made an attribute of the Blessed Virgin, was a sacred symbol 

 that had pervaded the whole of Egyptian art for 6,000 years. It 

 had spread with a religious impulsion into many lands, where it 

 was adopted with lessening sanctity as an ornamental motif, 

 and where it underwent by degrees a number of metamorphoses. 

 Some of these, it is necessary to examine. 



At the outset we may glance at those ordinary presentments of 

 the lotus that adorn the walls of Egyptian tombs. We can 

 distinguish bud, blossom, disc, and leaves, Illustration X.,figs. 3, 4. 

 Subsequent changes have not greatly obscured the bud. The 

 disc, which Mr. Goodyear regards as the upper surface of the 

 seed-vessel, grew increasingly like a rosette, and in an especial 

 manner came to stand for the sun. The curled tip of the leaf 

 originated a striking motif, common enough on mosaic pave- 

 ments, and often seen on legionary stones to which it was 

 transferred from legionary ensigns. In those of the Batavi, of 

 the Marcomanni, and others, we find a curious zoomorphic 

 development ; but they are lotus derivatives, nevertheless, and 

 had a solar association. In its simpler form the curled leaf 

 appears at Pompeii,* at Corinium, at Lincoln, Illustration X., 

 fig. 5, and, somewhat disguised, at Silchester, fig. 6. 



We have already seen that the flower in profile is used to 

 construct a solar glory, Illustration IX., but its petals, in full 

 face, may be employed for the same purpose, as in the Dorchester 

 pavement, where the solar duplex is irradiant, Illustration VI., 



fig. i. 



A careful study of Cyprian vases is needful in order to under- 

 stand the metamorphoses of the blossom into squares and 



* Boltou, Op. Cit., PI. ix. 



