fe 
King. ] 58 [Dee. 16, 1887. 
These casual extracts sufficiently indicate that had the ‘ Antiquities of 
Verrius’’ come down to us, it would have proved as valuable a mine of 
information for Roman as the ‘‘ Deipnosophists” of Athenus is for Gre- 
cian archeology. 
The prenomen borne by Flaccus is not recorded by Suetonius, but 
Jerome, in his Chronicle, gives it as ‘‘Marcus,’’ and puts down the gram- 
marian as flourishing (florwit) at the same time with the philosopher 
Athenodorus of Tarsus. The agreement, therefore, of our inscription 
with Jerome in this important particular, is strong evidence that both of 
them are to be referred to the same person, whose date, again, is all but 
precisely fixed by the archzeological proofs deducible from the monument 
itself. 
A “TT. Verrius’’ is one of the Decemviri of Saragossa who coined brass 
pieces in the name of Augustus in the eleventh year of his reign. Can 
this man have been the father of our grammarian? Certainly the name of 
his colleague, ‘‘C. Alliarius,’’ has so plebeian a sound that we can hardly 
think it beneath his dignity to have been joined in office with a manu- 
mitted slave. 
Two skulls, an axe, and aniron bangle, came to London with the monu- 
ment as having been discovered in the same tomb. These human relics 
are very remarkable in themselves. The one is that of a man so advanced 
in life that the swtwres are entirely obliterated, yet the teeth are sound, 
though much worn down on one side, as if the owner for some cause 
had chewed on that in preference to the other. The form is unusually 
elongated, the forehead low but very broad, indicating considerable mental 
power. 
The other skull is the head of a young man, finely-shaped, with teeth 
of the most exquisite regularity and enamel. As even an Italian anti- 
quarto could hardly attempt to pass them off (like the celebrated duplicates 
of Cromwell) as those of the same man in youth and age, or we may 
suspect that the mistranslation of the epitaph, as given in the Sale-cata- 
logue, suggested the discovery of the remains of the two brothers. We 
must attribute them (if really found in company with the marble) to long 
subsequent interments in its vicinity. But the question of ownership in 
the matter of these relics of humanity is, to me, settled by another con- 
sideration. It was as impossible for the corpse of Augustus’ schoolmaster 
to have been laid entire in the earth, as it was, but a few years back, for 
that of an Englishman of the same status in his profession, to have been 
“cremated,’’ That these crania should be given to some of the barbarous 
races, who, long after the times of Verrius, so frequently overran Apulia, 
may reasonably be conjectured from the articles deposited with them. The 
axe, though greatly corroded, preserves the exact form of the missile fran- 
cisca, the so much dreaded weapon that got its name from the Franks, And 
the bangle, a flat bar one inch in width, meant to be permanently fixed upon 
the wearer’s wrist by the hammering-up of the two ends till they overlap, 
is an ornament used only by savages. Add to which, the sound condition 
