FLOOR.] 
SECOND EGYPTIAN ROOM. 
91 
TEMPLE COLLECTION. 
On the West side is pkced a collection of antiquities, 
bequeathed to the British Museum in 1856 hy the late 
Hon. Sir William Temple, K.C.B., Her Majesty's Minister 
at the Neapolitan Court. The collection is exhibited as a 
separate series, both, as a more fitting acknowledgment of so 
munificent a bequest, and as giving in this form a more com- 
plete idea of the general character of the monuments obtained 
from a district of much importance in ancient times. A few of 
the objects were discovered in the Southern portion of ancient 
Etruria ; but the majority belong to that large region of 
Lower Italy, v/hich, prior to the Eoman dominion, was exten- 
sively colonized and highly cultivated by the Greeks, and 
thence received the name of Magna Graecia. They compre- 
hend, therefore, specimens of the arts of three difierent races, 
the Etruscans, Greeks and Eomans. The most interesting 
articles are placed on tables, constructed for the purpose, in 
the middle of the room ; the remainder are distributed in 
wall-cases under the heads of sculpture, terracottas, painted 
vases, glass, metal-work, frescoes, &c. The present description 
commences from the South end of the room. 
The first table is supported at each end by a marble trapezoplioron : 
one of these, representing a Cupid holding a bird, is of original and 
tasteful design. At the South side of the table is a group, in alto- 
relievo, of two Satyrs, which, like the trapezoplwra^ is of Grseco-Pioman 
style. On the North side is a Eoman mosaic, representing a 
Sacrifice : in common with most of the mosaics in this collection, it 
has been considerably restored. In the centre of the table, upon 
another mosaic, stands a Greek terracotta crater, or vase for mixing 
wine, of unusual magnitude, and decorated on the neck with a bas- 
relief of a chariot-race ; at each end of the table is a Roman alabaster 
vase or urn, one of which has a very beautifully sculptured handle ; ^d 
at the angles are four Greek rhytons, or drinking horns, one of w'hich, 
in the form of a mule s head, is remarkable for its good workmanship 
and perfect presen'ation. 
The central, or principal table, is also supported at the ends 
by trapezoj^hora, and adorned, on the top and on each side, with 
mosaics. The mosaic in front is divided into eight compartments, 
each representing a fish. In the middle of the table is a magnificent 
crater, which is the largest Greek painted vase in the British Museum ; 
at the sides of the table are six smaller vases, or vessels, of painted or 
glazed earthenware, or of glass, remarkable either for beauty of design, 
