A Guide to the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum

shown in the figure is punctured with the name of its owner, Bassus.

Wall-cases 46-48. Building materials and accessories. The accessories include such objects as hinges, dowels, cramps, doorpivots and sockets.

Among the building materials are stamped tiles, with magistrates' names impressed on them. In the case of a tile stamped with the name of Apollodorus, the footprints of a dog may be noticed.

A select series of typical specimens of marbles and other materials is a part of the collection formed by Mr. Henry Tolley, and bequeathed by Mrs. Aldworth. The remainder is in drawers under Case H. With these are an unfinished statuette from Cyprus, and a half-worked bead and reel moulding from the Mausoleum. Fragments of engraved and gilded crystal and sardonyx are

examples of the sumptuous wall-lining sometimes employed in Roman Imperial times.

The examples of less costly materials include reliefs in stucco; stamped bricks of the empire; specimens of fresco, mosaic, and shell decoration. In one instance the fresco is an imitation of mosaic; in others it gives the effect of marble.

On the right of the case is a cast of a relief showing a cutler's forge, also from the sepulchral altar mentioned above.

The

Wall-cases 50-52. Objects connected with horses. model horses in Case 50 wear headstalls of primitive Italian work, probably about the eighth century B.C.

Wall-case 52. The actual remains of horse-muzzles, bits, and iron shoes (note especially a very complete bronze bit from Achaia); axle-boxes and other portions of a large bronze chariot, inlaid with silver; small figures of chariots, and a curious terracotta of a fourwheeled two-horse car. An equestrian statuette and a terracotta fragment from Cyprus give details of a horse's bridle, etc.

Wall-case 52. Agricultural life. The specimens include

actual examples of various implements, such as bronze ploughshares of the Mycenaean age from Enkomi in Cyprus; and iron implements such as a sickle, a bill-hook, a mattock, a hoe, and a shepherd's crook; also a pair of grindstones. The representations include a terracotta model of a farmer's cart, and of a wine cart; black-figure vases and bronze statuettes with scenes of ploughing and sowing, and of an olive harvest; terracotta reliefs of a winepress, and of treading the grapes.

A marble relief (2212) shows the process of boiling down the new wine or must. Wall-cases 53, 54. Shipping. A terracotta vase shows a figure of a woman seated on the prow of a trireme. A cast from a relief at Athens shows the rowers of a trireme seated in their places.

Among the examples of shipping is a series of terracotta boats from Amathus which recall the legend that Kinyras, the king of Amathus in the time of the Trojan War, sent to Troy terracotta models of ships as the fleet which he had promised to Agamemnon. The largest of the fleet shows a considerable amount of detail, such as the socket for the mast and the arrangement of the thwarts; it also has the remains of an iron steering paddle. This case also contains a war galley from Corinth, with armed warriors seated in it.

In Case 54 is the metal casing of the prow of a galley from the site of the battle of Actium. Presented by H.M. Queen Victoria.

Wall-cases 54-56. Music. The instruments include a lyre of sycamore wood and tortoise-shell from Athens, a pair of wooden reed-pipes also from Athens, a bronze reed-pipe from Halicarnassos, and a pair of bronze pipes from Italy. See also cymbals, bells, and trumpets.

The vases E 171, E 172 have school scenes. In each case a music lesson is in progress, and the pupil who is not engaged plays with a dog behind the master's chair.

A jar in Case 55 shows a musical competition, with the musicians' stage, and two pipe-players in festal costume, each visited by Victory.

Wall-cases 57, 58. A collection of representations of domestic and pet animals. The chief domesticated animals are shown, and children are seen playing with dogs, goats, pigs, pet birds, and poultry. The vase F 101 shows a girl holding up to a spaniel a tortoise tied by the leg.

The lamp 486 shows a travelling performer with trained animals a cat which climbs a ladder, and a monkey. The vase 487 gives a boy seated with a pet bird, perhaps a quail, in its cage.

Wall-cases 58-64. A small series of objects illustrating the burial customs of the ancients.

Mycenaean Period. Specimens of the gold mouthpieces and diadems placed on the faces of the dead. [See more elaborate examples, also from Enkomi, in the Gold Ornament Room.]

Greek Period. A plain stelè, with an archaic metrical epitaph of Idagygos of Halicarnassos; a typical Athenian columnar stele of

Menestratos; a large urn from Athens which contained calcined bones and fragments of cloth. The obol for the ferryman Charon, which was put in the mouth of the corpse, may be seen adhering to a piece of the jawbone. The sepulchral lekythi were intended to hold offerings to be made at the grave, and often, as on two of the vases here shown, have representations of a tomb with the vases placed at its foot.

A mass of calcined bones and molten bronzes, from Amathus, must be the remains of a funeral pyre.

A marble urn (No. 2400), inscribed Burying-place of those buried apart,' appears to mark off a particular division of a cemetery.

Two marble chests from Ephesus are in the form of boxes, with lock-plates.

Early Italian Period. See two primitive hut urns from Monte Albano; an urn for ashes, approximately of human form, on a chair; an Etruscan urn, in the form of a dead person, recumbent on a bed.

Roman Period. No. 2274 is a Roman sepulchral relief of the first century B.C.

Aurelius Hermia, a butcher of the Viminal Hill, and his wife, Aurelia Philematium, stand with their right hands raised and clasped. In the verses on the left of the stone, Aurelius, speaking in the first person, describes the good qualities of his wife; on the right Aurelia is the speaker, and commends the kindness of her husband.

The small tablet with the name of Publius Sontius Philostorgus is one of a very limited class. It is derived from the monument known as the Tomb of the Thirty-six Partners' on the Latin Way. It would seem that the niches in the Columbarium were arranged in five horizontal rows of thirty-six niches, and that a place in each row was assigned by drawing lots. From the present inscription we learn that in the drawing for places in the first row, Sontius obtained the 3rd place. Other extant inscriptions show that in the four other rows he was respectively in the 14th, 13th, 36th, and 24th places. Wall-cases 63, 64. Roman sepulchral urns in marble and

alabaster.

No. 2359, the sepulchral chest of a child called C. Sergius Alcimus, gives curious details as to his rations of public corn. He died at the age of 31 years, but it is stated that he drew his rations on the 10th day of the month at the thirty-ninth distribution office (there were forty-five in all) (fig. 66).

The epitaph of Lepidius Primigenius gives the area of the plot as 16 feet in depth and 12 feet in frontage.

A bequest by a testator whose name is lost (C.I.L. vi., 10,248) provides an endowment (consisting of of the rental of a block of dwellings) to his freedmen and freed women to observe certain ceremonies at his grave. The tomb was to be decked on the days of his birth and (probably) of his death; also on the day of rose scattering

and on the day of violets. A burning lamp with incense was to be put on the tomb on the Kalends, Nones, and Ides of each month.

An epitaph (C.I.L. vi., 29,896) on a pet dog called Pearl tells that she was a Gaulish coursing-dog, always the pet of her master and mistress, with speaking ways, and that she met her death giving birth to puppies.

We turn to the table-cases in order.

Table-case E. Weapons. At the end, towards the middle of the room, are swords, spears, and daggers of the earliest and Mycenaean periods, from Cyprus, Rhodes, and Greece. The next divisions contain, on the one side, early Italian swords and daggers; on the other side, spear-heads in bronze and iron. Towards the other end of the case are Greek weapons, of which comparatively few survive.

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Fig. 66.-Sepulchral Chest of C. Sergius Alciaus.

In particular, a small group of weapons from the field of Marathon should be noticed. It includes a dagger, arrow-heads, javelin-heads, and a sling-bolt, all of which may well have been used in the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.). In the further corner of the case are some Roman weapons. Among them is

867. An iron sword, with a silver sheath, covered with reliefs in beaten bronze. The Emperor Tiberius enthroned, and attended by Victory, receives Germanicus. On the shield of the emperor is the motto Felicitas Tiberi, and on the shield of Victory is Victoria) Aug(usti). This sword, sometimes known as the 'Sword of Tiberius,' was found at Mainz, on the Rhine.

In the middle of the case are lead sling-bolts, arrow-heads, and objects of doubtful use sometimes known as bow-pullers.

A singular calthrop from Kertch is made out of a part of the human radius bone.

use.

Table-case F. Objects connected with the Toilet and Personal

At the end next to the middle of the room are Mirrors of various forms in bronze, silver, and silver-plated. Next in order are:Tweezers, razors, and similar implements of the toilet.

Boots and shoes. Actual specimens are shown of a leather shoe from the City of London (further examples are in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities); of a pair of cork soles, gilded, from Egypt; and of a pair of bronze soles. other objects illustrate various fashions of footgear. bronze statuette of a negro slave cleaning a boot.

Vases and

Books