\ 



OF FOREST-TREES. 249 



resses for the encouragement of gardeners, there was a college or hall, CHAP. IV. 

 not unlike that of our carpenters, where, upon a certain day, the fra- '"-"""y^^ 

 ternity not only met to feast, but, doubtless, to confer and edify one 

 another, as appears by an ancient inscription of the Dendrophori at 

 Puteoli, mentioned by the learned Dr. Spon *, which, for the honour • Misceii. 



. „. 1 • • Erudit. Antic. 



of our present Discourse, we subjoin : sect. xi. Art. 



^ 11. 



EX S. C. DENDROPHORI CREATI QVI SVNT 



SVB CVRA XV VIR ST. CCVV 

 PARTRON. L. AMPIVS STEPHANVS SAC. 

 M. DEI QQ. DEND. DEDICATIONI HVIVS 



PANEN VINVM ET SPORTVLAS DEDIT 



C. VALERIVS PICENTINVS LONGINIVS IVSTINVS 



C. IVLIVS HERCVLANVS A. FIRMIVS POLYBIVS 



With many others, (a numerous catalogue of consuls' names,) it being, it 



seems, a corporation established by the state, when they carried boughs ^^he J^^'^'s^^ad 



and branches of trees in procession, and distributed a sportula of bread Suxo90f,«, 



^ mentioned by 



and wine : but of this, and of the Fabri Tignarii, Naupegiarii, (ship- Josephus, in 



. . which they 



carpenters,) and Centonarii, see this learned man's excellent dissertation, were owiged to 



^ ' carry wood to 



the temple for 



These colleges or halls were dedicated to Diana, as goddess of the inff the fires of 

 woods, of which another Roman inscription is yet extant : 



D I A N A E 

 COLLEG. NAUPEGIAR, 

 M. JUNIUS. BALISTUS. 

 ET. Q. AVILLIUS. EROS. 

 H. VIR. D. D. 



younger Pliny, in book x. ep. cxvii. writes from Bithynia to Trajan, to ask the em- 

 peror's opinion concerning the custom that prevailed there of distributing a denarius or 

 two, a coin in value about sevenpence, on occasion of taking the manly robe, of entering 

 on a magistracy, or dedicating a public work ; which largesses the critics on this author 

 have not hesitated to call Sportulae, probably with sufficient reason, though that word does 

 not occur in the epistle, notwithstanding that it has been referred to by some authors as 

 justifying the application of this terra in the very extensive sense of any kind of gift on 

 any public occasion.— In the Greek glosses, Sportula is rendered sometimes a distribution 

 of silver. 



