on some ancient metallic Arms and Utensils . 399 
effect of the mud or earth in which it had been buried for many 
ages. The ancients, as Pliny informs us, stained plates of 
one sort of copper, the ces coronarium, with ox gall to make it 
look like gold : and the crowns and chaplets of public actors 
were made of copper so coloured.* It, perhaps, will not ap- 
pear very improbable, that the coating of the lituus was with 
this substance. 
The performers on the lituus among the Romans, seem to 
have been persons of at least as high rank as the stage players, 
and with propriety might therefore use instruments as highly 
ornamented. 
11. Tab. XII. represents a Spear-head. In Sir Joseph Banks's 
collection there is a British spear-head of bone, a Norman one 
of iron, and a third, the article before us, of copper, which is 
believed with the greatest reason to be Roman workmanship.^ 
This Roman spear-head is worthy of admiration and imita- 
tion, on account of its figure, weight, and size, as an offensive 
weapon. It is however made of cast metal, as appears from 
its rough surface, figure, texture, and grain. That it is made 
of bad metal will be made appear hereafter. It has not been 
hammered, but has been cast hollow to receive a wooden 
shaft, and in order to be light and saveyhe expence of metal.. 
It is evident from its figure, that it is of the very best con- 
ceivable form for piercing, and for inflicting the largest wound 
at the least expence of weight and bulk. This weapon was 
found in the river, with another, near Fiskerton, in the year 1788. 
* “ Coronarium tenuatur in laminas, taurorumque felle tinctum, speciem auri in co- 
f< ronis. histrionum praebet.” Pliny, lib. xxxiv. cap. viii. 
f An instrument is described and represented by a figure in the Archaeologia, Vol. 
IX. fig. c, exactly like this spear-head, and it is deemed to be Roman. 
MDCCXCVI. 3 F 
