VOL. XLIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 681 



satyresque priapus. The legs are united, and they place their feet on round 

 bases, which have been turned in a lathe, and then covered with leaf silver. 

 Their tails are twisted round a ring, by which they are suspended. The 3 satyrs 

 support with their heads the hearth of the tripod, which is of excellent work- 

 manship, and has 3 moveable rings, which serve to remove the tripod from one 

 place to another. One of these rings is wanting, and could not possibly be 

 found. Whence we may suppose, that originally it was likewise wanting. On 

 the hearth is another ornament united to its circumference, and forming a kind 

 of radiated crown, which crown has also 2 handles, but not moveable. These 

 serve to place the crown on the hearth. The bottom of the hearth is not of 

 brass, like the rest of the tripod, but of baked earth. The above-mentioned 

 closet, where this tripod was found, is all painted, and entire, with the ceiling 

 unhurt. In the walls of it was a table of white marble, fastened in the wall 

 itself, which might be called a side-board, and which was extended along the 

 sweep of the room. On this table was found a crescent of silver, about 5 inches 

 in diameter, and on the edge of its middle are 2 small holes to receive a string 

 to support it. Perhaps this was an amulet, for we have another of the same 

 metal, but smaller, with its supporter of silver, which has been long found. 

 On the same table was another amulet of silver, about an inch in height, which 

 represents Harpocrates. This figure has its finger near its mouth, the lotus on 

 its head, and wings on its shoulders. On the right shoulder hangs a quiver, 

 and its left arm holds a horn of plenty, and leans on the trunk of a tree, round 

 which is a serpent, and at the foot of the trunk stands an owl. There was found 

 a kind of fibula, which is of gold, and is extremely well preserved. Its form is 

 round, and made like a large button. On the back there is a gold wire fastened 

 to one side ; the other end of which is fastened in a small piece of gold, soldered 

 into the fibula. The whole is little more than an inch in diameter. There were 

 found also 2 other figures ; one is of marble, about a foot high, representing a 

 woman ; it is of no great value ; the other is of ivory, but there remains nothing 

 but the name, and a part of the face, by which may be perceived, that it is the 

 work of an excellent Greek hand. All the rest consists as it were of minute 

 leaves, which are so brittle that they cannot be united. Its height is about 

 a foot. 



There was also found in the same closet, on the same marble table, one of 

 the most beautiful statues ever seen, and so admirable, that I know not how to 

 begin to describe it. Its height is little more than 3 inches, by which you may 

 conceive what pains have been taken with it. It stands on its feet, and is quite 

 naked, and presents a priapus, which is not satyresque, with a most jx^rfect con- 

 trast of attitude. One observes through the whole figure a most perfect skill in 

 anatomy, where the smallest muscle is not lost, aiul at the same time it seems 



VOL. X. 4 S 



