598 
nating white, black, and red colours. Upon looking over 
numerous illustrations of Romano-British Pavements, I find 
this variety of configuration in fourteen different instances, 
but in only three of these does it occur as a border ; one 
being the interesting and valuable pavement at Thruxton, 
the copper-plate of which is in the possession of my friend 
J oseph Clarke, Esq., of Saffron Walden, where the diamonds 
alternate with crosses, assumed, but probably erroneously, to 
be the Christian symbol. In the other eleven cases they are 
worked up with the ornamentation in the body of the floors, 
often in cubical patterns. All these diamonds* are plain, but 
eight other examples occur — such comprising knots of the 
guilloche or braid, &c, — two of which possess it in the 
borders, and the remainder in portions of central work. 
The last include three floors at Aldborough, viz., the old 
Manor-house, and the two corridor floors ("Reliquiae Isurianse," 
plates xii., xiv). It will thus appear that as a border this 
pattern is quite a rare one in this country, though in France 
and Germany it is supposed to be of more frequent recurrence. 
The centre piece of this floor, set within its border as a 
a picture within its frame, represents a group of Roman 
paternity, produced occasionally upon coins and medallets of 
the later Roman emperors,* but rarely appearing in sculpture, f 
mosaics, or, as far as can be judged, oil paintings. This 
world renowned scene, the discovery of Romulus and Remus, 
suckled by a wolf, has been variously treated by our modern 
historians, some accepting the tradition as founded upon fact, 
*It appears upon some of the large brass coins of a few of the earlier 
Emperors, viz., Hadrian, Antoninus Pius (two types), and Philip Senior, — re- 
appearing in the Anglo-Saxon series, being copied by Ethelberht II., King of 
Kent, from the the small brass of Constantine. 
t Mr. Roach Smith owns a good intagliate carnelian bearing the group, and I 
find a spirited representation of it in carved ivory, part of the design of an 
Arabian Diptychon, engraved in a rare work, ''Thesaurus Veterum Dipty 
Chorum," by Ant. Franc. Gori ; Florence, 1759. This engraving is described 
p. 205, engraved in Table 22, and stated to belong to the Vatican Collection. 
