THE ROMAN VILLA AT HEMS WORTH. 5 



Jupiter Tonans, with six forks of lightning issuing from the curl- 

 enriched head. Of the concentric circular bands enclosing the 

 central panel, the first is occupied by chevrons, a motif repeating 

 the impression of the forked lightning, the second by scroll work, 

 the third by the three-plait cable, the fourth by foliated scroll 

 work, and the fifth by the two-plait cable. This mosaic is of 

 black, white, red, grey, and pale blue tesserae. A few paces from 

 this floor was found a hypocaust, with the pila in position." 



It is, however, doubtful whether this head is of Jupiter. Wide 

 enquiries have failed to find any similar representation on pave- 

 ments, on coins, or in sculpture. The general character of the 

 head seems scarcely designed to present the majesty of the 

 hominum pater aique deorum. The head has been rather hastily 

 assigned to Jupiter because of the three crooked red spikes or 

 rays issuing from it on either side, which may seem to fall in 

 with Virgil's description of the thunderbolt : 



Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquosae 

 Addiderant, rutili tres ignis. . . . 



But there would seem to be no known instance of the flashes 

 issuing from the head. The bolt was always depicted as grasped 

 in the hand of the deity or in the talons of his eagle, or as winged 

 and separate. A flash-crowned head as an intentional innovation 

 is not probable, for the artists in mosaic were conservative in 

 their adherence to the traditional mythological formulae. 



The authorities in the Greek and Roman department of the 

 British Museum are somewhat inclined to support my guess that 

 this may be a head of the Sun-God. Instances are known of a 

 bearded Apollo, but the reference would be rather to Mithras, 

 whose cult, we know, had taken a strong hold in the fourth 

 century. The sun had a place in the not very exclusive Pantheon 

 of Constantino the Great. A second brass of his, found at 

 Hemsworth, bears on the reverse a figure of the sun with radiated 

 head and the legend SOLI INVICTO COMITI. But it must 

 be acknowledged that the rays of the Sun-God's head are usually 

 straight, not rulili or iorii, and that bearded representations, if 



