Writing was sometimes put directly upon wood. Such is the case with the fragment of board from Egypt (No. 461), with iron handle for suspension. It was no doubt hung up in the schoolroom, and contains verses from the first book of the Iliad (Il. i. 468 ff.) for the boys to copy or recite. The lawyer's tablet (No. 462), of about the fifth century A.D., which deals with loans, etc., has the surface specially whitened for the writing and a space for the pen. Parts of the two outer leaves, which contained between them eight inner leaves, are shown in the Case.

Other objects which throw light on ancient education are the potsherd with an exercise written upon it, in which the Greek consonants are successively combined with all the vowels (No. 463), and the fragment of a relief in marble (No. 464), representing scenes from the Iliad-Achilles dragging the body of Hector round the walls of Troy, and Achilles conversing with Athena. This method of teaching the great Epic stories by means of pictures seems to have been much in vogue in Italy, where several fragments of these so-called Tabulae Iliacae have been found. That they were in use about the Augustan period is

rendered probable by the existence of an historical summary of analogous character, which can be dated to 15-16 A.D.

(458) B. M. Papyri, No. ccclvi; (463) Journ. Hell. Stud., XXVIII. (1908), p. 123; cf. Dumont, Inscriptions céramiques, p. 405 (5); (464) Cat. of Sculpt., III., 2192; Jahn, Griech. Bilderchroniken.

On Greek education generally, see Freeman, Schools of Hellas, and the select bibliography there given. For ancient books, cf. E. M. Thompson, Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography; Birt, Das antike Buchwesen and Die Buchrolle in der Kunst; Schubart, Das Buch bei den Griechen u. Römern. For relics of Graeco-Egyptian school-life, see Journ. Hell. Stud., loc. cit.

FIG. 197.-GREEK TERRACOTTA DOLLS. Ht. 5 in. and 6 in.

Toys. Children of all ages and nations bear a great resemblance to one another; consequently, it is not surprising to find that Greek and Roman toys are often very similar to those of modern times. Nevertheless such differences as do exist are very instructive. We may take the dolls first, in Greek times chiefly of terracotta and frequently furnished with movable arms and legs.

It will be noticed that most of these dolls have holes pierced in the top of their heads for the passage of strings connected with the

FIG. 198.-DONKEY CARRYING SEA-PERCH. L. 4 in.

arms and sometimes with the legs.

These would produce a

movement of the arms and legs, and explain the term veuрóσTаσта

FIG. 199.-OLD WOMAN ON MULE (No. 466). 1:1.

("drawn by strings") applied to these dolls. In Xenophon's Symposium a travelling showman speaks of being kept by the profits drawn from such puppets.1 Two, holding castanets, are illustrated here (fig. 197). We get allusions in literature to these dolls and other small terracotta figures, which show that one of their chief uses was the amusement of children. One writer 2 speaks of "those who make little figures of clay in the form

of all kinds of animals destined for the beguiling of little children." Such a figure is that of the donkey with a sea-perch tied on its back

1 Xen., Symp. 55.

2 Suidas, s.v. Κοροπλάθοι.

(fig. 198), or the fascinating groups of the little boy on the goose (No. 465), and the old woman on the mule (No. 466; fig. 199). Many of these toys bring vividly to mind country scenes in Greece at the present day. Though they were doubtless intended chiefly for little children, women did not altogether disdain these terracotta toys. A Greek tombstone of the fifth century B.C. has a relief showing a girl, quite grown up, standing with a terracotta doll, exactly like those in this Case, in her hands, while a young

slave-girl holds the figure of a duck before her. Humbler but less breakable toys of Roman date are the wooden horse (No. 467) and rag doll (No. 468) from Egypt. A pathetic interest attaches to these toys in that for the most part they have been found in the tombs of children. The seated figure of a girl (No. 469; fig. 200), holding an ivory dove in her hand, and surrounded by her spinning instrument for the knee (see p. 158), her shoes, and marriage-bowl, was found in a tomb near Athens, probably of the fourth century B.C. The bowl is almost certainly the Aéẞns yaμkós, λέβης γαμικός, 1 Conze, Att. Grabreliefs, No. 880, pl. clxx.

used by the bridal pair immediately after marriage. It is therefore not unreasonable to conclude that the tomb was that of a newly wedded bride, to whom might be applied Herrick's lines:

"That morne which saw me made a bride,

The evening witnest that I dyed."

A very similar discovery was made at Rome some years ago. In a tomb of the early third century after Christ was found a wooden jointed doll surrounded by articles of jewellery and toilet.' The bone dolls (No. 470) seen in this Case are of about the same date as this wooden doll. Like it, some of them have been jointed. Sometimes, instead of being placed in tombs, the dolls were dedicated by children, when they grew up, to the shrine of some god. An epigram speaks of Timarete, who before her marriage dedicated to Artemis (a maiden to the maiden goddess) her drums,

FIG. 201.-GREEK TOY JUG (No. 471). 1:1 and 1:2.

her lovely ball, her hair-net, and her dolls and doll-clothing." Persius, the Roman satirist of the first century after Christ, writes: "Say, ye priests, what value has gold in a sanctuary? Even as little as the dolls which a maiden has given to Venus." 3 To the left of the dolls is a series of small models of furniture, tables, chairs, vases, etc. (No. 470*), which show that these were favourites with Greek and Roman children. Sometimes these, too, were dedicated in sanctuaries. Among the treasures of Hera at Olympia, the traveller Pausanias saw a small couch, said to have been a plaything of Hippodameia.*

A noteworthy set of toys belonging to Greek children is that of the little jugs (No. 471), painted with designs showing their close connection with child life. Children are here depicted playing with jugs of this type, with animals, with toy carts

1 Bull. della Comm. Arch., XVII., pl. 8. 3 Pers., ii. 69 f.

2 Anth. Pal. vi. 280.

4

Paus., v. 20, 1.