502 Compendium of Political Arithmetic. nurfes, 500 die. The mortality of children has augmented greatly during the prefent luxurious age; convulfions and teething kill the greater number of them. The natural finall pox ufually carries off eight in every hundred attacked by it; but of 300 inoculated, no more than one dies. Among 3125 who die, it appears, by the regifters, that there is only one perfon of 100 years of age. More old men are to be found on elevated fituations, than on plains and vallies. The proportion between the deaths of women, and that of men, is as 100 to 108. The probable duration of female lives is 60; but after that period, the calculation is more favourable to them, than to the males. Married women live maidens. Bristol [Supp 60,000 Mentz 27,000 28,000 Mexico 160,000 80,000 Milan 132,000 21,000 Modena 30,000 Cadiz 30,000 Moscow 500,000 200,000 Nantes 80,000 600,000 Naples 440,000 Charleston 11,000 Newcastle 40,000 Coblentz Conftantino ple Dublin Edinburgh Embden Glafgow Hanover 150,000 Petersburgh 220,000 85,000 Philadelphia 35,000 7,500 Pifa 20,000 Franckfort Ghent 60,000 Rome longer than Genoa 165,000 Geneva 27,000 Seville 120,000 1 32,000 Turin 80,000 60,000 Warfaw 120,000 82,000 Venice 150,000 57,000 40,000 Leghorn Loretto 4,000 Utrecht 32,000 30 oco Weflar 4,609 Lucerne 7,000 Lucca Lyons 150,000 York 12,700 Madras The number of old men, who die in cold weather, is to the unmber of thofe who die in warm weather, as 7 to 4. According to the obfervation of Boerhaave, the most healthy children are born in the months of January, February, and March. 3 The married women are to the unmarried, in the ratio of 1 to 3; and the married to the unmarried men, as 5. The number of twins born is to that of fingle children, as 1 to 65 or 70. The number of marriages is to that of the inhabitants of a country, as 175 to 1000. In the country, there are about four children produced by every marriage; in cities, there are but 35 to 10 marriages. The men able to bear arms, form the fourth part of the inhabitants of a country. Number of inhabitants in all the great cities and towns of the world: Leipfic Lifbon London Madrid 65,000 Zuric For the Monthly Magazine. DESCRIPTION OF A TREASURE FOUND IN DIGGING IN THE GARDEN OF THE NUNS OF ST. FRANCIS DI PAOLO, AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT ESQUILINE. IN 1794, as fome labourers were digging in the garden of the religious ladies of the order of St. Francis de Paul, at the foot of the Efquiline Mount, in Rome (not far from the Suburra) they difcovered, fifteen feet below the furface, a SPACIOUS CHAMBER filled with 150,000 ruins; among which was a large cafo, 22, containing a number of pieces of ancient 28,000 Roman furniture. The difcovery was, 30,000 at firft, confidered as of little importance, and Vol. III.] Defeription of the Toilet of a Roman Lady. and the Roman government made a donation of the whole contents to the ladies who had the property of the foil. The ladies fold the cheft, and all that was in it, to Baron de SCHELLERSHEIN, counfellor of the King of Pruffia, at that time refiding at Rome. On a clofer investigation, however, of the pieces of which this treasure confifted, it has been pronounced by antiquarians and the learned, one of the most valuable and interesting discoveries ever made in the hiftory of fubterraneous researches. The baron, on difcovering the value of thefe ancient remains, was not willing that they should be taken from Rome; and, on quitting that city, left them in the cuftody of a third perfon. A learned letter, giving fome account of them, has fince appeared in all the Italian Journals, written by the Abbé VISCONTI, Director of the Capitoline Mufeum, to LA JOMAGLIA, a prelate of Rome, and patriarch of Conftantinople from which, and from other details, the following defcription is made Lip. The circumftance which ftamps fuch an immenfe relative value on this difcovery is, that we are hereby enabled to form an idea of the ftate of the art of defign among the Romans, towards the latter end of the fourth century. We are admitted, as it were, to a view of the principal pieces of houfehold furniture depofited in the houfe of an illuftrious family of Rome, in that century, the most curious utenfils of which made a part of the toilette of a lady of the fame family. With regard to the intrinfic value of this treafure; it weighs, in the total, one thoufand and twenty-nine ounces of remarkably pure filver, a great part of it being alfo gilt ;-outweighing almoft all the treafures of filver (that is of pieces which are not current money) that have been hitherto difcovered. It may be alfo remarked, that the greater part of the difcoveries of this kind made before, have been ifolated antiquities; fuch as tlie filver buckler found in the river Rhone, near Avignon; another found in the Arve, near Geneva; a third, of which an engraving is given in the Ninth Volume of the Memoirs of the French Academy of Infcriptions; great difh, or platter, to be feen in the Vatican; and the foucoupe, or raucer, of the Ardal urians, published by The Abbé BRASCHI. Here, however, the 503 we have a number of pieces, which, confidered as an ENSEMBLE, may prove of no little ufe in throwing light on the ancient ftate of the furniture in Roman families. The most diftinguishable of thefe pieces, for its magnitude and its beauty of workmanship, is a filver coffer, with a coverlid of a quadrangular form; being two feet long, a foot and a half wide, and a foot high. Pixis was the generic name made ufe of by the Romans for the little coffers in which the ladies ufed to keep their jewels, as originally thofe depofitaries were made of boxwood; afterwards was added the name of the metal of which they were con ftructed, as pixis argentea, or aurea, &c. This coffer is very much like that exhibited in the feventh plate of the Second Volume of the Drawings of Herculaneum; Venus' doves are feen drawing out of it, with their beaks, a collar of pearls. The beautiful ftatue of Venus rifing out of the waves (the work of Menophantes, and now in the palace Chigi, at Rome) has, at her feet, a coffer fomewhat fimilar, although not precisely of the fame form, as that we are treating of. The figure of this laft is not that of a parallelipipedon, as are thofe which are to be feen on more ancient monuments; the two parts of which it confifts, the inclofure and the coverlid, form two truncated cones on a rectangular base, difpofed the wrong way, and united together at their bales. This form, lefs fevere than the more ancient one, appears to have come into vogue at the time when the arts began to decay. Thus we find, of a fimilar conítruction, the two coverlids which are on the two grand fepulchral urns in the Pio-Clementine mufeum, and which are attributed to the age of Conftantine: one of thefe is fuppofed to have belonged to the tomb of St. Helena, and the other to that of St. Conftantia. The baffo-relieves on the outfide of the coffer remove all doubts as to the ufe to which it was once applied. They are connected with the toilette table, with the ornaments of female drefs, and the paraphernalia of the nuptial ceremony. They appertain to a newlymarried lady, whofe portrait, together with that of her husband (including the demicorps, or half length) are engraven upon the coffer. These bufts are difpofed in a manner exactly fimilar to thofe which are to be feen on Sarcophagi, or fuch as are painted on funeral glaffes. The lady is exhibited, 3 T2 ftanding 504 Defcription of the Toilet of a Roman Lady. The two principal figures are inchafed or carved, on the top of the coverlid, and are encircled with a crown of myrtle, fupported by two genii, or little cupids. The coiffure of the bride confifts of hair, worked up into a number of ranks, and treffed together, fomewhat refembling the mode of head-drefs to be feer on many portraits or ftatues of St. Helena.. The bridegroom appears with a small beard, resembling that of the Emperor Maximin, or that which is feen on the heads of Julian and Eugenius. His apparel is a chlamys, drawn together and fastened over the right fhoulder by one of thofe buckles, with clafps or braces, which are fo frequently to be found in the collections of the virtuofi., Of the four fides of the coveriid which compofe its valance or declivity, and are each in the form of a trapezium, three reprefent, in baffo-relievo, Venus marina with her nereids. On that face of the coverlid which is next the hinges, Venus is reprefented with a number of tritons,. and fome cupids, in her train; a triton is alfo prefenting her with an oval mirror. The drapery, and ornaments of the figures on thefe three fides, are gilt. On the anterior face of the coverlid, although not gilt, is alfo reprefented, in relievo, the proceffion of the bride to the houfe of her husband; in this, the front of the houfe, and a number of cupolas and roofs, are plainly to be diftinguifhed. The form of conftruction of the houfe is much like that which is found on feveral Contorniat medals; the newly-married lady is feen walking between two women playing on inftruments. The houfe is fituated in the middle of a fquare. On the other fide of the houfe are represented, on the fame face of the co erlid, a woman and two children carrying cofferets, ewers, vafes, and other articles of household furniture. The figures are feparated from each other by columns clafped or embraced by bands, [Sup difpofed in the manner of fpira! lines. This mode of fupporting was introduced into architecture in the better ages, although it is occafionally to be met with in the monuments of the following ones. On that border of the coverlid which is next to the two hinges, is a flat smooth. furface, about an inch wide, running along fide of it; on this the following words are read, in characters well shaped, but fomewhat meagre: SECUNDE ET PROJECTA VIVAT:IS:NCH. The laft words have been altered. This infcription contains an acclamation or with in favour of the newly married pair. It was a customary formula, and is to be met with in monuments of all defcriptions, from the third century to the fifth; after which it is no longer to be found*. M. VISCONTI inclines to think that the laft letters do not fignify in Chrifto (vivatis in Chrifto) grounding his opinion on this circumftance, that as the furniture in general exhibits a number of pagan deities, it is fcarcely to fuppofed that it fhould ever have been the property of Chriftians. D'AZINCOURT, however, on a clofer examination of the contours of the coffer, difcovered a mo. nogram of Chrift in the middle of the two Greek letters with which it is often accompanied. w. The letter a is badly fhaped. So that it appears to have been thus written: Secunde & projeta vivatis in Chrifto. The These fort of infcriptions not occurring in monuments pofterior to the fifth century, the one before us may farther affift us to afcertain pretty nearly the epoch wherein the coffer was made; a period certainly not very remote. art of defign difplayed in the sculptures and chafings, the columns, the figures, &c. is, it must be allowed, far from coming up to the chef d'oeuvres of Greece, fo fuccefsfully imitated by Roman artists of the first two or three centuries. There is, however, a certain degree of elegance confpicuous in the forms, and of exactitude and finifhed workmanship in the execution, which characterizes the whole collection. The fculpture is, beyond. itri. Art. v. 3. makes mention of a glafs, on * BUONAROTTI, in his Offervazioni fopra i·~ which is a wifh, including the name of the perfon who makes it: Benedicte vivas a jæculave. A formula, nearly fimilar, may be feen on fome ancient marbles in the Capitoline Museum, fuch as, maxima vivas cum dextro, e cum sharis tuis, or vivatis cum omnibus. veftris. comparison, Vol. III.] Defcription of the Toilet of a Roman Lady. comparison, fuperior to that of the confular dyptics which are yet extant, and which were made towards the clofe of the fifth century. This comparison and the conclufion refulting from it, may receive farther illuftration, if we confider the ornaments appurtenant to the four lower fides of the coffer. Here we obferve figures in relievo, the drapery of which is gilt, feparated from one another by columns of the fame form as thofe we mentioned before, although fhorter; thefe figures reprefent a young lady occupied at her toilet, and attended by other women, having in their hands different articles of furniture. At the two extremities of each of the fides is a peacock in relievo, feparated from the figure next to it, by a column. The lady is feated on a chair decorated with gilt chains and ftuds, and which was called by the ancients, Cathedra. Horat. Satyr. i. v. 10. Juv. Sat. vi. v. 9. In one hand fhe has a box, and with the other holds the end, either of a trefs of hair or of a fillet which is on her head. A woman oppofite to her is prefenting her with an oval mirror. Another has in her hands, an article like a powder box, and two others carry flambeaux or torches refting in a fort of chandelier. Another attendant is fupporting a fquare coffer, and has an ewer at her feet; a fixth is holding, with both hands, a round box, not unlike a kettle drum; while the laft has hold of a ring, to which is attached a little round coffer, the underpart of which is flat, and the coverlid of it pyramidal. After the coffer we have been confidering, the most important article in this treasure is a filver cheft, or jewel box, which was fufpended to the remains of certain fmall chains, of the fame metal, which ferved to bear it up. It is one foot in height, and a foot and fome inches in width at the bafe. The Latin name of it, fcrinium, denotes the coffers, or round boxes, in which the ancients used to put their volumes of manufcripts. Engravings of them are to be found on many of the most ancient monuments; fome are altogether of the cylindrical form. The figure of this is a polygon ; it has fixteen fides, and terminates in a dome. It differs very little, as to form, from these which are to be feen clofe by the figures of the mufes, or figures clad with the toga. It is to a box of this defcription, the ornaments feen upon it most probably belong; they reprefent ss the nine mufes. Eight are engraved alternately on the fixteen fides, and placed in niches of no confiderable depth. In the fides which feparate each of the eight mufes, are crowns or vafes encircled with arabefks. The ninth mufe is reprefented on the top of the coverlid. Within the coffer is a plate of copper, which divides the interior part horizontally. This plate is perforated with five round holes, in the following manner: that of the middle being larger o o than the reft. Thefe were named loculi; the volumina, or written volumes of the ancients, being depofited in them. Here, however, in lieu of volumes, was found in each of the holes, a small fized vafe, apparently defigned for the purpose of holding pomatum and perfumes. The ferinia were fometimes made use of for fimilar purposes; agreeably to which we find them called by Pliny, lib. 13. §. 1. ferinia unguentorum. Indeed, that we are here confidering, appears to have been originally defigned for no other use than the one first mentioned. It met, however, with a fate exactly the reverse of what happened to a precious vafe, found among the fpoils of Darius, and which contained the perfumes belonging to the ladies of that prince's family, as Alexander ordered that to be fet apart as the fitteft depofitary of the works of Homer. The figures of the mufes engraved round about the Scrinium, claim our at tention, with respect to their attitudes and attributes. On the top of the coverlid is Erato ftanding alone, and close to her the dove of Venus-thereby characterizing her as the Mufe of Lovers and of the nuptial ceremony. She is employed in interweaving a garland of flowers, which he has felected out of a basket, placed befide her. In the hands of Clio is the fquare book or codex; at the feet of Polyliymnia is the narrow mouthed mafk; (attributes exactly fimilar to which may be feen in the Vatican Mufeum) and clofe by Calliope, is the vafe, or ufual emblem of facred combats. This laft fymbol was commonly attributed to Terpsichore, the mufe who cele brated the victors in athletic combats : we ought not to be furprifed, however, 506 Defcription of the Toilet of a Roman Lady: to find it here placed by Calliope, in a monument of the fourth cen tury, fince it was then ufual to recite pieces of heroic poetry in the affemblies held for the celebration of folemn games*. On one of the fides, occupied by the Arabefks, is a lock, ferving to introduce the key, intended to open the Scrinium. Among the other pieces of furniture are two fconces, or arms encircled with bracelets, each of which holds a chandelier, very fhort, of a cylindrical form. In former ages, they used to be attached to the walls; whence in fome countries of Europe, this kind of candlestick is to this day called an arm of the chimney, alluding to its ancient form. There are, moreover, in this treafure, five little fquare plates, of the platter or fawcer fhape, the workmanship of which is well executed; together with four round porringers without handles, of no confiderable depth or concavity. In the infide of each of thefe, is engraved a cypher or monogram, inchafed or carved in gold, after the following KAR-This cypher is manner incircled with a crown of laurel, one half of which is gilt; the other half is coloured in enamel, which, by the Romans, was called nigillum; they used it for the purpose of varying and embellishing their filver plate. They gave this name, because its brown or greenish colour approaches pretty nearly to black. Cyphers are often found on monuments of every defcription from the fourth cen it tury and afterwards. They comprized all the letters of a name, fometimes of many names; were of different fizes, and were arranged in an odd manner. In the Lambecian calendar of Philocalia, which appears to have been of the fourth century, the word oriente is formed in the cypher ftyle. The confular dyptics contain fimilar cyphers often very difficult to unriddle; and the capitals of the pillars in the church of St. Vital, at Raverond, on which are the words Titus, Corne lius Nepos +, in letters arranged after the fame manner, are well known to antiquarians. The monogram here exhibited, contains the names Projecta Turci; that is, Projecta, wife of Turcius. There is an analogy between the name of the infcription which is on the first coffer: Projecia See the Defcription of the Pio-Clementine Mufeum, Vol, I. p. 48; and Vol. IV. p. 25. † Montfaucon, Diar, Italie, cap. vii. [Sup & Secunde. There were two confiderable perfonages at Rome, in the fourth century, both of whom were named Turcius Secundus. One of thefe was prefect of Rome in the year 339; the other difcharged the fame office in 362 *. They were of the Afterian family, which during three centuries fucceffively, occupied the moft diftinguifhed pofts in the Roman empire. Turcius Rufus Apronianus Afterius was conful in the west, in 494 †. It is highly probable, that the different articles of filver plate compofing this collection were part of the furniture of the lady of one of the two prefects of Rome, of the Afterian family here mentioned. It must not be omitted here, that the letter C in the laft fyllable of the monogram Turci, is fhaped fo that it appears very much like a G; and that this circumftance occurs alfo in each of the five plates, and of the four poringers. We fhould bear in mind, however, that the Romans often pronounced and wrote the C like G as in the words Gaius, Gneius, Groffus, Adigula, and others. Even in the most ancient times we find agrigentum letters refemble each other fo much, that written for acragenta. Befides, these two it is not at all improbable, that the artists who engraved the monagram, might have made an equivoque . been found engraved in very small dotted At the back of the four porringers has characters clofe together, the following words and cyphers: CVT. IIII. P. V. which may be thus interpreted: Scutella quatuor pondo quinque. The Abbé VISCONTI has demonftrated the propriety of this interpretation, by weighing in a balance all the four little porringers, first together, and afterwards feparately. In the fame cheft were alfo difcovered five vafes of a very beautiful conftruction, on one of which is an Arabesk engraving, and on another is an epigraph in black enamelled letters; the colour of which is fomewhat faded : PELEGRINA VTERE FELIX. *V. Corfini, de prefec. Urbis, ann. dict. His name is to be feen on a fragment of marble built in one of the walls of the cathedral of Aix; this is a, fragment of the epitaph of Bafil, bishop of Aix, who died during the confulfhip of Afterius. In the ancient monuments one letter is often put for another. In |