VOL. XLIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. . 121 



sometimes carried their images about with them, as their guardians and protec- 

 tors. And it appears to have been a custom among them to place their images in 

 shrines, made in the form of temples, both for public and private devotion. Tj^ 

 tabernacle of Moloch, mentioned in the Acts of the apostles, is generally taken 

 to have been of the former sort. And Herodotus informs us, that the Egyp- 

 tians, on a solemn day, carried in procession the image of a goddess, said to be 

 the mother of Mars, in a wooden temple gilded over, which was drawn in a 

 chariot. Such shrines are mentioned likewise by later writers. And others of a 

 less size seem to have been made in imitation of them for private use. The 

 silver shrines of Diana, mentioned also in the sacred history cited already, are 

 by most interpreters said to be of this kind. And Mr. Kemp had in his collec- 

 tion of antiquities one made of brass, only 5 inches high, with a goddess, sup- 

 posed to be Isis, sitting in it ; as it is described in the printed catalogue. Another 

 of the same deity, but of a different form, and somewhat less, is now in the 

 possession of James West, Esq. a worthy member of this Society. And some- 

 times they were placed in the monuments of deceased persons ; an instance of 

 which we find mentioned in an inscription published by Reinesius, which is there 

 said to have been made of marble. The persons employed in making those sacred 

 images were called by the Greeks ccyxXi^xTo-rroio], and by the Romans sigillarii, as 

 we find in the ancient glossaries. And one of these artists is mentioned in two 

 inscriptions of the Britannia Romana, where he is stiled sigillaeivs collegii 

 LiGNiFERORVM, who are more usually called by the Greek name dendrophoki ; 

 part of whose business might be to carry, or attend, the shrines in their proces- 

 sions at public festivals. 



Whether these plates ever belonged to shrines, cannot be determined ; but 

 probably they did not ; except perhaps the first, which from its size, and having 

 no image stamped on it, but only a written inscription in honour of Mars, 

 might possibly have been laid over part of a wooden shrine, within which the 

 brass image was placed, that was found with it. As for the rest, they were 

 probably designed as partial representations of shrines for the use of private per- 

 sons ; having only the front of them with the image of the deity placed in it ; 

 which, being fixed on wooden tablets, might either be set up in their houses, or 

 carried about with them, in devotion to those tutelar deities. And when any 

 fortunate event happened, which they attributed to the success of their addresses 

 made to them, they might sometimes express their acknowledgment of it 'by 

 hanging them up in their temples, among other donations, making them a sort of 

 votive tables. That they were intended for some such uses seems the more pro- 

 bable, from the number of them found together. They have a similitude with 

 the reverse of many Roman coins, where the images of their deitie^ are repre- 



VOL. IX. R 



