23 
Such is the explanation at present generally adopted of those 
sepulchral monuments which exhibit emblems of a meal, more 
or less luxurious and complicated. A very small proportion 
belong properly to the Koman people; the material, the art, 
the language indicate their Greek origin, In the provinces of 
the Roman empire their occurrence is rare—in Britain especially 
so.*' The British and University Museums contain specimens 
brought from Greece, or countries of Greek population. 
It must not be supposed, however, that the sculptured monii= 
ments dedicated to the memory of the dead always contain, along 
with portraits, representations of a feast. We sometimes find 
the figures simply reclining, though the conventional tripod 
table has nothing upon it. In a monument to a deceased 
daughter, discovered at Chester, and figured in Mr. Roach 
Smith’s Collectanea Antiqua, (vol. vi., p. 34), a young maiden 
is seen reclining on a couch, with a mirror in her hand, wRile a 
female attendant stands behind, and the tripod table in front, 
and a bird, no doubt a pet dove or sparrow, swings on a wreath 
above. Other variations also occur, in which the original idea 
of a feast has become subordinate, or even disappeared, f 
I do not think that much of the original inscription on our 
monument has been lost by the fracture which it has suffered. 
Judging from the analogy of similar inscriptions it might he 
completed by a few words, denoting the age of the daughter, 
the names of her parents, and the expression of their sorrow. 
It has evidently been originally a mural tablet, indicating the 
place of the sarcophagus or urn in which the remains of ^lia 
Uliana were deposited. It had probably been broken before it 
was placed where it was found, which is above the usual level 
of Roman remains, and no fragment was near it. Dr. Iliibner 
says the photograph which I sent to him has just arrived in 
* Our Museum contains a fragment of a monument, representing a female 
reclining upon a couch, and holding a cup in her hand. It has belonged to the 
same class as the monument of ^lia ^Eliana. See Descriptive Account, j). 33. 
t The idea of commemorating a lady by her paraphernalia is carried still 
further on a monument by a husband to his wife, preserved at Eome. G-ruter, 
Dcccxv. 10. On it are sculptured her trinket box, her mirror, her hair pin, and 
her necklace. In some instances the wife is represented as holding in her hand 
the cista, which contained her ornaments. 
