16 



ARCHEOLOGY. (ROME AND ITALY.) 



a bronze saucepan, a bronze figure of a goat ; the 

 remains of buildings that seem to have been con- 

 structed round an open square or garden ; and 

 facts which, as a whole, give valuable additions 

 to our knowledge of Romano-British building, 

 and show the differences between the town houses 

 of Silchester and the country houses or villas; 

 while both differ in a remarkable way from the 

 typical Roman house as seen in Italy. 

 " The Altar of Yinovia. The Roman site 

 called Binchester, on the banks of the river Wear, 

 near Bishop Auckland, Durham, represents the 

 ancient Vinovia. Some interesting discoveries 



ROMAN TILE, FOUND AT SILCHESTER, ENGLAND. 



were made there a few years ago by Mr. John 

 Pond. In the last year an altar has been un- 

 earthed in a state of excellent preservation. It 

 is 4 feet 3 inches high by 1 foot 2 inches long, 

 and 1 foot inch broad, and has sculptured 

 on its sides the four principal sacrificial imple- 

 ments, the "recuris," or axe, the "culter," or 

 knife, the " patera," or dish, and the " praafericu- 

 lum," or jug. It also bears an inscription which 

 has been made by expanding the abbreviated 

 words to read Jovi Optimo Maximo, et Matribus 

 Ollototis, sine Transmarinis, Pomponius Lonatiis, 

 Beneficiarius Consulis, Pro Salute sua et suo- 

 nem, Votum solvit libenti animo. From the 

 titles given to the mother goddesses, who were 

 favorite objects of worship at Vinovia, it is con- 

 ceived that the consular beneficiaries and others 

 who erected the altar came from Olot, in the 

 northeast of Spain, near the Mediterranean Sea 

 and the frontier of Prance. 

 - Rome and Italy. A Memorial of Horace. 

 A flattened column or oblong slab was uncov- 

 ered during the excavations for the Tiber em- 

 bankment, on which is inscribed the official rec- 

 ord of the public games celebrated by Augustus 

 in the year 17 B. c. The decree of the Senate and 

 the regulations enforced by the executive com- 

 mittee are followed by a list of the necessary 

 prayers and sacrifices and the order of contests. 

 Then comes an announcement that a choir of 

 twenty- seven youths, and as many maidens, will 

 sing the " Carmen Sfeculare," written by Quintus 

 Horatius Flaccus. 

 In the same locality the workmen have dis- 



covered twenty-five additional fragments of the 

 great map of the old city which formerly stood 

 in the forum of Augustus. When this map was 

 destroyed by fire or earthquake many of the 

 pieces were thrown into a heap of broken build- 

 ing materials, and finally found their way into 

 the walls of the old Alfieri palace, which have 

 now been unearthed. The Minister of Public 

 Instruction has ordered excavations to be made 

 in search of further fragments of the map. 



' Remains of Public Works. Portions of the 

 viaduct (on the line of the road now called the 

 Lungaretta) traced by ^Emilias Paulus, in the 

 sixth century of the city, across the lowlands of 

 the Trastavere, in correspondence with the bridge 

 of ^Emilius Lepidus (the Ponte Rotto, or Ponte di 

 Santa Maria, destroyed in 1886), have been dis- 

 covered under the Piazza di San Crisogono. The 

 structure rests on piers 6 metres wide, 2'25 metres 

 thick, and the arches are a little more than 3 

 metres in diameter. It is built of blocks of red 

 tufa, well squared and joined without cement. 

 A pier or landing-place some five hundred feet 

 above the bridge of St. Angelo, discovered in the 

 prosecution of works for widening the Tiber, is 

 supposed to have been constructed for a landing- 

 place for the marbles used in the buildings of the 

 Campus Martius and of the Pincian and Quiri- 

 nal Hills. It is a raised causeway, built of blocks 

 of tufa, laid crosswise without cement, and coated 

 with an outside facing of travertine. On each 

 side of the causeway are landings nearly level 

 with the water, of concrete, faced with a palisade 

 of oaken beams, the palisade being faced on the 

 inner side with sheets of lead. 



A Group of Statuary. A colossal head of 

 archaic workmanship, found in the gardens of 

 Sallust and kept in the Ludovici museum, and 

 heretofore described as a " head of Juno, in the 

 old style," has been identified by Profs. Petersen 

 and Benndorf as having been probably the statue 

 that w.as worshiped in the temple of Venus Ery- 

 cina (founded A. u. c. 512). It is connected by 

 them with a " parapet " of Parian marble found 

 in the same neighborhood in 1887, on which are 

 the three bas-reliefs, (a) a veiled female figure in 

 the act of burning incense, (b) a naked female fig- 

 ure in the act of playing the double flute, both 

 sitting on a pillow or small mattress, and (c) a 

 young female figure emerging from the water 

 with the help of two female attendants. The 

 piece was explained by Petersen as belonging to 

 the throne on which the statue of Venus Erycina 

 or Sallustiana was seated. Petersen supposed the 

 central bas-relief (c) to represent the birth of 

 Venus, and the side pieces as personifying (a) the 

 sacred and (b) the profane love. He has caused 

 a restoration to be made in plaster of the figure 

 and of the throne, and the two fit together per- 

 fectly. 



A Roman Bride's Treasures. In the tomb 

 of Crepereia Tryphaealia, near the ancient gar- 

 dens of Rome, the occupant .of which was indi- 

 cated by the wreath of myrtle leaves in the coffin 

 to have been a bride, was found a doll of oak 

 wood, about a foot long, well jointed, and having 

 a body carved with unusual care and fidelity to 

 nature. It wore a head-dress of the style that 

 prevailed in the age of the Antonines and like 

 that of the first Empress Faustina. Various or- 

 naments and remains of articles of clothing were 



