C 295 ] 
blifhed his large and elaborate collection of Antient 
inferiptions there in 1702. In which he fais, thaC 
this plate, at the time he wrote his account of ir, 
nuper eruta fuerit. But as he wrote this very pro- 
bably fome years before the publication of his book, 
the plate might have been found befote the death 
of that princefs, and been in her poffeflion ; and af- 
ter her deceafe come into fuch hands, as might oc- 
cafion the diipofal of it, at the time, and in the 
manner, here recited. 
But I fhall now proceed to confider the words 
of the infeription ; which may, I prel'umc, be read 
at length, with the proper fupplements, in the fol- 
lowing manner : 
Florae Tiberius Rlautius Drofiis, pagi magijler 
anni Jecundi y votum folvit hbens merito. 
, •; 1 : - 1 
The godefs FLORA was thought by th z Romans 
to prefide over feilds and trees, and therefore they 
addreHcd to her to favour them with profperous and 
fruitful feafons. Hence Varro fais : I?ivoco Ruhr- 
gum et F lor am, quibus propitiis „ neque rub /go fru • 
menta atopue arbores corrumpit , neque non tewpe- 
jlive florent. It aque public ae Robigofenae Rob /ga- 
ll a, Florae ludi F lor alia Junt in flit at i f. But it ap- 
pears from other paflages of that writer refered to 
by Fabretti , that fhe was firft a Sabine deity, and 
introduced at Rome by king Tatius in the time 
of Romulus , many ages before the inftitution of the 
* De R. R, Lib. i. cap. i. 
P p 2 Flora - 
