466 Tlie Roman lotteries at Durobrivce. 



centre ; and not unfrequently the indentation was formed into 

 a niche for the reception of a figure. This is the case with the 

 example before us, which is surrounded with ornamental niches 

 containing the figures of those deities who gave their names 

 to the days of the week. The one is recognized immediately 

 as Jupiter brandishing his thunderbolt ; the other appears to 

 be intended to represent Mars. It is, perhaps, by a mere and 

 accidental error of the potter's artist that Mars, in this in- 

 stance, occupies the place of Mercury. Two other fragments 

 of the same vessel contain the lower parts of the figures of 

 Mercury, with his caduceus, and Diana. Perhaps these vases 

 with mythological subjects were considered to possess more 

 importance than the others, for they present peculiarities of 

 colour. A fragment, containing a figure of Minerva, rather 

 rudely executed, is straw colour, with a buff glaze. The most 

 curious of these fragments contained part of the scene repre- 

 senting the mythic story of Hercules and Hesione. The figure 

 of the sea-monster only is lost by the fracture. Hercules, 

 with the lion's skin wrapped round his left arm, brandishes his 

 club in the act of attacking the monster. Hesione stands 

 naked between her deliverer and her persecutor, having ap- 

 parently her hands fettered behind her, with heavy weights 

 hanging by chains from her arms.* 



It seems probable that these potteries at Durobrivas do not 

 belong to a very early period of the Roman occupation of the 

 island. The style of art, and their general character, perhaps 

 indicate a period not older than the latter part of the second 

 century, and we cannot help thinking that the peculiar style 

 of ornamentation originated in the desire to furnish a home- 

 made substitute for the imported and, therefore, we must 

 suppose, expensive Samian ware. As I have already re- 

 marked, this pottery forms one of the most curious and 

 instructive monuments of the history of the internal condition 

 of our island during the Roman period. Its character is en- 

 tirely Roman, and in the mass of its remains, which has down 

 to the present moment been examined, we find not the slightest 

 trace of Celtic or Germanic sentiment. 



* These fragments, which were collected by Mr. Artis, are engraved and 

 described in Mr. Roach Smith's Collectanea Antiqua, vol. iv., pp. 90—93. 



