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 VASES .ALTARS, PATERA, 
 
 TEIPOBS 9 CANDELABRA 
 
 SARCOPHAGI, 
 
 &Co 
 
 KROM VARIOUS MUSEUMS AND COLLECTIONS, 
 ENGRAVKD ON 170 Pi.ATES , 
 BY 
 
 HENRY MOSES. 
 
 
 
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 Pi 
 
 &
 
 

 
 Art 
 Library 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE study of the unrivalled works of the 
 ancients is essential to the establishment of 
 good taste and correct judgment, and has laid 
 the foundation of those excellencies which have 
 given celebrity to all the distinguished artists 
 of modern times. Many of the most admirable 
 productions of antiquity are, however, inac- 
 cessible to students, whose limited income will 
 not allow of their travelling to see them ; and 
 correct representations of them are only pre- 
 served in volumes of enormous expense, or 
 great scarcity. I therefore conceived that I 
 should perform an acceptable service to the 
 lovers and professors of the Arts, if I were to 
 
 1211087
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 select from various Museums, Collections, and 
 Cabinets, and to engrave in a manner the least 
 expensive, such of the most esteemed monu- 
 ments of ancient times, as would tend to 
 improve the judgment, and refine the taste of 
 the Student. 
 
 These considerations, and the success which 
 has attended a few productions of the kind, 
 which have lately appeared in this country,* 
 have induced me to venture on the present 
 publication. 
 
 * " Tatham's Etchings of Ancient Ornamental Architecture, 
 drawn from the Originals at Rome," selected with taste and judg- 
 ment, and etched with great freedom and skill. 
 
 " The Vases from the Hamilton Collection," drawn and engraved 
 by that ingenious artist, the late Mr. Kirk. 
 
 " The Costume of the Ancients," from original drawings by 
 Thomas Hope, Esq. 
 
 " A Disquisition upon Etruscan Vases ; displaying their probable 
 Connexion with the Shows at Eleusis and the Chinese Feast of 
 Lanterns; with Explanations of a few of the principal Allegories 
 depicted on them, by Mr. James Christie." A scarce and valuable 
 work.
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 Most of the subjects are selected from au- 
 thentic collections, both public and private, to 
 which I could gain access; and others are 
 copied from valuable pieces on the Continent. 
 
 When the work was first commenced it was 
 intended to consist of plates only ; but in the 
 course of the publication (as it was rewarded 
 by a favourable reception from the public) it 
 was suggested, that these should be accom- 
 panied by some remarks and explanations con- 
 cerning the nature and use of the Antiquities 
 represented. This hint has been regarded ; 
 and I trust the illustrations will be found calcu- 
 lated to afford both amusement and instruction. 
 
 The Plates numbered 103, and the eighteen 
 following, may not at first appear connected 
 with the principal object of the work : yet as 
 they represent some of the vast and superb 
 sepulchral chambers in which Vases, Cinerary
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 Urns, and Sarcophagi were deposited, and are 
 taken from Bartoli and other celebrated autho- 
 rities, it is hoped they will be considered as an 
 useful addition. 
 
 It is with pleasure and gratitude I acknow- 
 ledge my obligations to the several gentlemen 
 and artists of eminence, who have by their 
 communications greatly contributed to increase 
 the value of this Publication. 
 
 HENRY MOSES. 
 
 LONDON, M.DCCC.XIV.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON VASES. Page 1. 
 Head-piece From Bartoli's Admiranda. 
 Tail-piece From Tischbein's Ancient Vases. 
 PLATE. 
 
 1. From a very ancient Vase in the possession of J. P. Anderton, 
 
 Esq. 
 
 2. From a Vase in the possession of Mr. George Cooke. 
 
 3. From a Vase in the possession of Dodwell, Esq. at Rome. 
 
 4. From a very ancient Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 5. From a Vase in the collection of T. Hope, Esq. 
 
 6. From a very ancient Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 7. Fictile Vases in the British Museum. 
 
 8. Fictile Vases in the British Museum. 
 
 9. From a Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 10. From a Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 1 1 . Vases from Sir. W. Hamilton's collection. 
 
 12. From a Vase in the possession of C. H. Tatham, Esq. 
 
 13. From a Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 14. From a Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 15. From a Vase in Sir \V. Hamilton's collection. 
 
 16. A Vase in the possession of Thomas Hope, Esq. 
 
 17. From a Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 18. From a Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 19. From a Vase in the Antichita Siciliane. 
 
 20. From a Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 21. From a Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 22. From a Vase in the collection of Thomas Hope, Esq. 
 
 23. From a Vase in the possession of J. Soane, Esq. 
 
 24. From a Vase in the collection of Thomas Hope, Esq. 
 
 25. From a Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 26. A Vase from the Galerie Mythologique.
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 PLATE. 
 
 27. From a Vase in the British Museum. 
 
 28. From a Vase in the possession of His Majesty. 
 
 29. From a Vase in the collection of Thomas Hope, Esq. 
 
 30. An antique Vase from Piranesi. 
 
 31. A Vase from Piranesi. 
 
 32. From a cast of a Vase in my possession. 
 
 33. From a Vase in the possession of T. Hope, Esq. 
 
 34. A Vase from Piranesi. 
 
 35. A Vase in the possession of the Duke of Bedford. 
 
 36. A Vase from the Cavaceppi Collection. 
 
 37. A grand antique Bacchanalian Vase in the possession of the 
 
 Earl of Warwick. 
 
 38. A Vase in the Musee Napoleon. 
 
 39. From a Vase in a private collection at Rome. 
 
 40. From a cast of a Vase in my possession. 
 
 41. A Vase from Roccheggiani's Monumenti Antichi. 
 
 42. An antique Vase from Piranesi. 
 
 43. From a Vase in the collection at Naples. 
 
 44. From a cast of a Vase in my possession. 
 
 45. From a cast of a Vase in my possession. 
 
 46. From a Vase in the possession of the Marquis of Buckingham. 
 
 47. A marble vase in the British Museum. 
 
 48. A grand Vase from Piranesi. 
 
 49. From casts of Vases in my possession. 
 
 50. The Portland Vase now in the British Museum. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON ALTARS. Page 15. 
 Head-piece From a bas-relief at Rome. 
 Tail-piece From the Arch of Constantine. 
 
 51. An altar from the Museo Pio Clemen tino. 
 
 52. An Altar from the Antiquitates sacrae et civiles Romanorum 
 
 explicatae. 
 
 53. From an Altar at Rome. 
 
 54. From an antique Altar at Rome. 
 
 55. An Altar from the Libreria di San Marco. 
 
 56. An Altar from the Libreria di San Marco.
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 57. An Altar from the Musee Napoleon. 
 
 58. An Altar from Cavaceppi. 
 
 59. An Altar from Winckelmann's Monument! Antichi inediti. 
 
 60. An Altar from the Libreria di San Marco. 
 
 61. An Etruscan Altar from Roccheggiani's Monument! Antichi. 
 
 62. From an Altar in the Borghese Collection. 
 
 63. An Altar from Bartoli's Admiranda Romanorum Antiquitatum,, 
 
 AN ESSAY ON PATERA. Page 21. 
 Head-piece From Tischbein's Ancient Vases. 
 Tail-piece From ditto. 
 
 64. A Patera from the Museum Romanum of De la Chausse. 
 
 65. A Patera from the Museum Romanum of De la Chausse. 
 
 66. From a very ancient bronze Patera in the British Museum. 
 
 67. A bronze Patera in the possession of Charles Townley, Esq. 
 
 68. From a bronze Patera in the possession of the Bishop of Win- 
 
 chester. 
 
 69. A Patera from the Museum Romanum of De la Chausse. 
 
 70. From a Patera in the British Museum. 
 
 71. From a Patera in the British Museum. 
 
 72. A Patera from Millin's Peintures et Vases Antiques. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON TRIPODS. Page 25. 
 Head-piece From the Musee Napoleon. 
 Tail-piece From Tischbein's Ancient Vases. 
 
 73. A Tripod in the Musee Napoleon. 
 
 74. A Tripod from Roccheggiani's Monument! Antichi. 
 
 75. A Tripod from the Museum "Wbrsleyanum. 
 
 76. An antique Tripod from Piranesi. 
 
 77. A Tripod in the Musee Napoleon. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON LAMPS. Page 31. 
 Head-piece Lamps found in Herculaneum. 
 Tail-piece From Bartoli's Antiche Lucerne. 
 
 78. A Lamp from Bartoli's Antiche Lucerne. 
 
 79. A Lamp from Bartoli's Antiche Lucerne. 
 
 80. Lamps from Bartoli's Antiche Lucerne.
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 PLATE. 
 
 81. A Lamp from Bartoli's Antiche Lucerne. 
 
 82. Antique Lamp from the Museum Romanum of De la Chausse. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON CANDELABRA. Page 37. 
 Head-piece From the Arch of Titus. 
 Tail-piece From Tischbein's Ancient Vases. 
 
 83. Bronze Candelabra in the British Museum. 
 
 84. Bronze Candelabra found in Herculaneum. 
 
 85. Candelabra from Cavaceppi, &c. 
 
 86. Candelabra in the Musee Napoleon. 
 
 87. A Candelabrum in the possession of T. Hope, Esq. 
 
 88. A Candelabrum from the Musee Napoleon. 
 
 89. An antique Candelabrum at Rome. 
 
 90. A Candelabrum from Piranesi. 
 
 91. A grand antique Candelabrum from Piranesi. 
 
 92. A Candelabrum from Piranesi. 
 
 93. A Candelabrum from Piranesi. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON TAZZAS. Page 45. 
 Head-piece From Bartoli's Admiranda. 
 Tail-piece "From Tischbein's Ancient Vases. 
 
 94. An antique Tazza from Piranesi. 
 
 95. A grand antique Tazza and Pedestal from Piranesi. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON CIPPI. Page 49. 
 Head-piece From Tischbein's Ancient Vases. 
 Tail-piece From Bellorii XII. Caesarum Numismata. 
 
 96. A sepulchral Cippus from Piranesi. 
 
 97. A sepulchral Cippus from Piranesi. 
 
 98. A sepulchral Cippus from Piranesi. 
 
 99. A Cippus from the Antiquitates sacrae et civiles Romanorum 
 
 explicate. 
 
 100. A sepulchral Altar from the Antiquitates sacrae et civiles Ro- 
 
 manorum explicatae. 
 
 101. A Cippus from the Borghese Collection. 
 
 102. A sepulchral Cippus from the Musee Napoleon.
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 AN ESSAY ON TOMBS, CINERARY URNS, AND 
 SARCOPHAGI. Page 53. 
 
 PLATE. 
 
 Head-piece From Sir William Hamilton's Vases. 
 Tail-piece From Bartoli's Admiranda. 
 
 103. Vignette. 
 
 104. Discovery of a Tomb, from Sir William Hamilton. 
 
 105. The Mausoleum of Hadrian. 
 
 106. The Mausoleum of Hadrian in its perfect state, as described 
 
 by Procopius and other authors. 
 
 107. Section of the Mausoleum of Hadrian, from Bartoli. 
 
 108. The Tomb of Caius Cestius, with the Gate of St. Paul. 
 
 1 09. Section of the Tomb of Caius Cestius. 
 
 110. The Tomb of Cecilia Metella, commonly called Capo di Bovi. 
 
 111. Section of the Tomb of Cecilia Metella. 
 
 112. Section of the Tomb of Alexander Severus and Julia Mammea, 
 
 commonly called Monte del Grano. 
 
 113. A sepulchral Chamber of the Family of Livia. 
 
 114. A sepulchral Chamber near the Gate of St. Sebastian at 
 
 Rome. 
 115*. Section of a Tomb of the Equites Singulares. 
 
 115. The Tomb of P. Vibius Marianus. 
 
 116. View of a Tomb near San Vito. 
 
 117. Section of a Tomb near San Vito. 
 
 118. Interior of a Sepulchral Chamber near San Vito. 
 
 119. From a sepulchral Chamber in the Villa Corsini. 
 
 120. From a sepulchral Chamber in the Villa Corsini. 
 
 121. Antique cinerary Urn at Castle Howard. 
 
 122. A cinerary Urn from Piranesi. 
 
 123. A cinerary Urn from Bartoli's Antichi Sepolcri. 
 
 124. An Etruscan cinerary Urn from Bartoli's Antichi Sepolcri. 
 
 125. An Etruscan cinerary Urn from Bartoli's Antichi Sepolcri. 
 
 126. An Etruscan cinerary Urn from Bartoli's Sepulcrorum Mo- 
 
 numenta. 
 
 127. A Sarcophagus from Bartoli's Sepolcri. 
 
 128. A Sarcophagus in the Church of St. Constance at Rome.
 
 Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 PLATE. 
 
 129. A Sarcophagus from the Museo Pio Clementino 
 
 130. A Sarcophagus from the Museo Pio Clementine. 
 
 131 . From the front of a Sarcophagus in the British Museum. 
 
 132. A Sarcophagus from the Musee Napoleon. 
 
 133. A Sarcophagus found near Ephesus. 
 
 134. A Sarcophagus in the British Museum. 
 
 135. A Sarcophagus in the Musee Napoleon. 
 
 1 36. The ends of the same Sarcophagus. 
 
 137. A Sarcophagus from the Museo Pio Clementino. 
 
 138. A Sarcophagus from the Museum Capitolinum. 
 
 139. A Sarcophagus from the Museum Capitolinum. 
 
 140. A Sarcophagus from the Galerie Mythologique. 
 
 141. A Sarcophagus from the Museo Pio Clementino. 
 
 142. A Sarcophagus from the Borghese Collection. 
 
 143. The ends of the same Sarcophagus. 
 
 144. An antique Sun Dial from Carlo Antonini. 
 
 145. A domestic Fountain from Roccheggiani's Monumenti An- 
 
 tichi. 
 
 146. An antique Puteal from Roccheggiani's Monumenti Antichi. 
 
 147. A marble Chair of the Gymnasiarch from Stuart's Athens* 
 
 148. From Millin's Galerie Mythologique. 
 
 149. From Millin's Galerie Mythologique. 
 
 150. From Millin's Galerie Mythologique.
 
 PI I. 
 
 VASES. 
 
 FEW remains of antiquity have excited more interest 
 than vases. The variety and the elegance of their forms, 
 the singularity of the designs, the beauty of the com- 
 positions with which they are adorned, and the im- 
 portant instruction which the subjects of these pictures 
 convey, have conspired to render them peculiarly 
 attractive. By attentively studying the stories they 
 record, the scholar has been enabled to throw much 
 light upon the mythology, the history, the manners and 
 customs of the ancients ; the artist has derived high 
 improvement from copying their beautiful designs ; and 
 even the manufacturer, in the imitation of their forms,
 
 2 VASES. 
 
 has materially improved the shapes of many of those 
 vessels and utensils which administer to the comforts 
 or the elegancies of life. 
 
 The earliest vases were made of clay hardened by 
 fire. These, probably, were rude in form, and void of 
 ornaments ; but as luxury and refinement increased 
 they were executed with greater elegance, and were 
 made of more costly materials; viz. of marble*, ivory, 
 glass or a vitrified paste f, precious stones, bronze, silver, 
 and gold. Those vases made of the precious metals 
 were not always esteemed the most expensive. Vases 
 made of clay, if they were remarkable for exquisite 
 workmanship, of Corinthian brass, or of some uncom- 
 mon mineral, as were probably those called Myrrhine 
 vases t, were most sought after, and brought the largest 
 prices. 
 
 Upon the earthen vases the figures are generally of a 
 reddish colour, sometimes relieved by white, upon a 
 dark or black ground ; but in some of the oldest Greek 
 vases the figures themselves are black, and the ground 
 yellowish red II . There have been many theories and 
 opinions with respect to the mode in which the vases 
 were coloured, and the figures drawn. The following, 
 by Mons. D'Hancarville^T, seems to be the most pro- 
 bable, and is founded upon the examination of various 
 
 Vide Plate 28 to 46. f Vide Plate 50. 
 
 t Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxv. Vide Plate 8 to 27. 
 
 || Vide Plate 1 to 8. 
 
 ^f Recueil d'Antiq. Etrusques, Grecques et Romaines, torn. ii. ch. ii. 4.
 
 VASES. 
 
 specimens. The earth of which the vases were made 
 was extremely light and porous, and of a light yellowish 
 red colour. When made and dried, but probably pre- 
 viously to undergoing the action of the fire, some instru- 
 ment rather hard, and capable of containing a portion 
 of black liquid pigment, of a certain consistency, was 
 employed by the artist in drawing the outline of the 
 figures and composition. The reason for supposing that 
 the instrument was pointed and hard, and the pigment 
 rather thick, is, that upon a careful examination of some 
 vases, a sort of sulcus or furrow is observable in the 
 centre of the line which is made by the pressure of the 
 instrument, and which the thickness of the pigment did 
 not fill up ; or perhaps the vase itself was so porous as 
 to absorb the moisture of the paint almost immediately. 
 The artist then, probably with a brush, laid on a coat of 
 the black close to the outline, of a certain width, and some 
 inferior person filled up the other parts. The reason 
 for supposing that this plan was pursued is, that upon 
 accurately examining the vases, there is almost always 
 observed to be a thicker coat of the black paint close to 
 the outline, from one eighth to a quarter of an inch wider 
 than in the other parts, showing that it had, at the edge 
 of this first black, been twice laid over. And that this 
 part was done by the same artist who drew the outline 
 is probable, because in some instances he has departed 
 from the original line, particularly in parts of draperies, 
 sometimes painting over the first outline, and sometimes
 
 4 VASES. 
 
 leaving* a part of the vases still more uncovered ; and 
 where this is observable, it generally improves the 
 original lines. They were then done over perhaps with 
 a sort of varnish of a reddish tint not highly polished, 
 and baked. 
 
 The earthen vases have been thought to have been 
 Etruscan by all the writers who have described them 
 previous to the time of Winkelman. But this learned 
 antiquary* has clearly proved that Etruria has but a 
 limited claim to the honour of their production : for the 
 greatest number of them have been found not only in 
 various parts of Italy, but also in Sicily, and amidst the 
 ruins of different cities of Greece. Since, therefore, they 
 are not peculiar to Etruria, Winkelman, Boettiger, and 
 Millin have denominated them rather Grecian t than 
 Etruscan vases ; and the following circumstances con- 
 firm the propriety of this appellation : the subjects which 
 ornament them are all taken not only from the fabulous 
 but from the real history of Greece ; the manners they 
 illustrate are, with little exception, Grecian : and the 
 inscriptions which have been found upon them are uni- 
 versally in the ancient Greek characters. By what has 
 been said it is not meant to assert that none of these 
 elegant works of art were fabricated in Etruria ; for it 
 is well known that Grecian artists settled early in Cam- 
 pania, and on the borders of the Adriatic ; and that the 
 
 * Winkelman, Hist, de 1'Art, liv. iii. c. iii. 15. 
 
 f Millin, Peintures de Vases Antiques. Introd. vii.
 
 VASES. O 
 
 Grecian colonies who established themselves in these 
 places cultivated the fine arts to a very high degree, and 
 that they made a greater progress in these new colonies 
 than in Greece itself. If, then, any of these vases were 
 made by the Etruscans, they must at least have acknow- 
 ledged the Greeks as their masters. Objections have 
 been made to their being called Grecian vases, because 
 they are found also in other countries than Greece. 
 M. Visconti has suggested the name of Grseco-Italic or 
 Italo-Greek. Mons. Lanzi has proposed that the vases 
 which have been discovered at Nola, at Capua, at Naples, 
 and at Psestum, should be called Campanian ; and those 
 which have been discovered in Sicily or at Athens, &c. 
 Sicilian, Athenian, &c. M. Millin has proposed that 
 they should be denominated painted Campanian, or 
 Sicilian, or Athenian vases, according to the country 
 in which they were found ; and this appears to be an 
 appropriate and definite name, as it not only declares 
 the name of the country in which they were discovered, 
 but further distinguishes them from vases made of other 
 materials than baked clay.* 
 
 Vases differ exceedingly in their forms, which are 
 universally full of grace. They vary too from each other 
 in the number, in the position, and in the shape of the 
 handles, which are in general two, never exceed three, 
 and are sometimes only one. The devices of the 
 
 * Millin, Peintures de Vases Antiques. Introd. viii.
 
 6 VASES. 
 
 handles are often taken from the figure of a serpent, 
 a branch of a tree, a swan's neck, the head of a faun, 
 a satyr, or a ram, &c. as the fancy of the artist suggests, 
 or according to the purposes to which the vase is 
 intended to be applied. 
 
 The paintings or sculptured designs upon the ex- 
 terior surface of vases are deserving of the most par- 
 ticular regard. Where the subjects are mythological 
 they convey much important information relating to 
 the history of the gods, and to the rites and ceremonies 
 used in their worship, particularly those observed in the 
 sacred and solemn mysteries of the Greeks, and in the 
 frantic orgies of Bacchus. They commemorate also the 
 fabled achievements of the heroic ages, the labours of 
 Hercules, the adventures of Theseus, the valorous acts 
 of the Amazons, and the renowned events of the Trojan 
 history. In the multiplicity of designs which these 
 and numberless other subjects have suggested to the 
 fancy of the artist, there is detailed a vast variety of 
 particulars relative to the history, the dresses, and the 
 customs of the Greeks, which, but for these precious 
 monuments, would have been entirely without a 
 record. These designs as they exist upon vases are 
 not always original. They were often copied from 
 pictures of the most celebrated antiquity. Subjects 
 taken from religious or civil history do not universally 
 ornament the antique vases. They are not unfrequently, 
 more particularly the vases of marble, adorned with
 
 VASES. 7 
 
 single heads, masks, wreaths, borders of flowers, ara- 
 besque patterns, and various fanciful designs. What- 
 ever these subjects may be, they were for the most part 
 selected with a reference to the purpose for which the 
 vase was designed. Those which were set apart for 
 sacred use were adorned with designs bearing an al- 
 lusion to the mythological history, or the religious 
 ceremonies of the deity in whose worship they were to 
 be employed. If intended as prizes to the victors in 
 the public games, they contained allegorical represen- 
 tations of virtues which the gymnastic youth ought to 
 be emulous to imitate, or actions which they should 
 studiously avoid. If designed for funereal purposes, 
 subjects were chosen which were illustrative of the his- 
 tory of the deceased, or adapted to the mournful cere- 
 monies of the tomb. 
 
 On the painted vases inscriptions* are often found 
 which announce the names of the persons thereon 
 represented ; and these are in many instances deserving 
 of particular notice, as they record names mentioned 
 by none of the ancient authors whose works have been 
 preserved to our own times. Sometimes the inscrip- 
 tion only commemorates the name of the artist who 
 made or painted the vase, and sometimes it contains a 
 moral sentiment, or an affectionate remembrance of 
 some departed friend to whose memory the vase was 
 consecrated. An instance of this latter kind occurs in 
 
 * Vide plates 5, 6,
 
 <3 VASES, 
 
 a vase in the British Museum, on the bottom of which 
 was traced with a pointed instrument, before the clay 
 was baked, an inscription to the following- purport : 
 My dear Phile, adieu. This vase to be placed in the 
 second sepulchre. 
 
 To state fully the various purposes to which vases 
 were applied, or to ascertain the particular uses of 
 such of them as have come down to our own times, 
 would be a vain attempt. From what may be collected 
 from the works of the Greek and Roman writers, and 
 from the representations of their uses, as far as they 
 are recorded upon the sculptured or painted remains 
 of antiquity, it appears that they were employed in 
 holding the lustral water used in the various purifica- 
 tions of the ancients, in receiving the blood of the 
 victim to be sacrificed, or in containing the consecrated 
 wine which was to bedew his devoted head. They 
 served also for the presentation of the first products of 
 the harvest, of the fruits of the vine, of the flowers, &c. 
 which the grateful worshipper offered to the gods. A 
 number of votive vases were to be seen in the lariaries 
 or domestic chapels, where the images of their gods 
 being very small, the vases consecrated to them were 
 proportionably minute. They were used in the celebra- 
 tion of the Eleusinian and other mysteries, were carried 
 in the public processions,* were given as rewards in 
 the gymnastic exercises, were customary presents to a 
 
 * Vide Vignette II.
 
 VASES. y 
 
 friend or a new-married couple, or to a youth upon his 
 assuming the toga virilis. They were used for various 
 purposes in the public and private baths,* in domestic 
 entertainments. The larger vases were placed for 
 splendour in the spacious halls of the Romans, or as 
 ornaments in their gardens, where they frequently con- 
 tained shrubs and flowers. The largest portion of the 
 vases which have escaped the devastations of time have 
 been discovered in the sepulchral chambers of the 
 ancients. In some instances they have been found 
 with human ashes in them ; but most frequently they 
 have been found empty, placed upon the floor, arranged 
 round an unburnt skeleton, or hanging upon nails of 
 iron or bronze attached to the side of the walls.f In 
 this state they are supposed to have held the provisions 
 and the offerings which it was customary to present 
 to the dead. 
 
 Of the sepulchral vases, the most celebrated is that 
 known by the name of the Portland vase. The tomb 
 which contained the sarcophagus wherein this exqui- 
 site production of art was deposited, was discovered 
 about the latter end of the sixteenth century in the 
 Monte del Grano, which is at the distance of near 
 three miles from Rome, on the Frascati road. This ele- 
 gant vase was long preserved in the Barberini palace 
 at Rome, and called the Barberini vase. It came into 
 the hands of Mr. Byres, who parted with it to Sir 
 
 Vide Vignette II. f Vide Vignette XVII. 
 
 C
 
 10 VASES. 
 
 William Hamilton, who sold it to the late Duchess of 
 Portland, and in consequence of its becoming the pro- 
 perty of that family it has obtained the name of the 
 Portland vase. By the generous indulgence of the 
 present Duke of Portland it is at present deposited in the 
 British Museum. The dimensions of the vase are nine 
 inches and three quarters in height, and twenty-one inches 
 and three quarters in circumference. Its substance is 
 semi-transparent, and is two bodies of vitrified paste, 
 or glass of different colours, so closely united together 
 as to make two distinct strata, like a cameo. The upper 
 stratum, a beautiful white, serves for the figures, which 
 are in relief; and the under one, a dark blue, forms 
 the ground. The whole is wrought with a lathe, after 
 the manner of a cameo, and exhibits, along with the 
 design and workmanship of the finest bas-reliefs, the 
 minute and delicate finishing of the best gems. On that 
 side of the vase which all who have set about to explain 
 or describe the objects represented seem to have agreed 
 in regarding as the first compartment, a female figure, 
 draped, in the centre, is sitting on the ground at the 
 foot of a tree. On her left side is the head and part of 
 the body of a serpent. Her right hand is extended to- 
 ward the arm of a young male figure on her right, 
 which descends into the picture naked from a portal, 
 composed of two square columns, with a plinth and 
 frieze. A portion of drapery appears to be dropping 
 from the left hand of the male figure. Over the head
 
 VASES. 11 
 
 of the female figure is Cupid, flying in the opposite 
 direction of the portal, and carrying in his right 
 hand what is either a quiver or a torch. On the 
 left is a second tree, under which, in nearly an erect 
 posture, is an aged male figure of grave aspect. On 
 the other side are likewise three figures. In the centre, 
 under a tree, is a recumbent female figure naked to the 
 waist, supported by the left arm, while the right is lifted 
 up, and the hand laid upon the head. In her left hand 
 is a torch, inverted, but not extinguished, and at her foot 
 is a square thin stone, perforated in the centre. In her 
 countenance, which is turned to the left, there is an ex- 
 pression which may be said to be that of grief and love. 
 Her eyes do not appear to be directed toward any object 
 in the group. On her right is a male figure naked, seated 
 and looking toward her. In his left hand he slightly 
 holds a portion of drapery, upon which he rests his arm, 
 and which is thrown over one thigh. On his right is a 
 square pillar, surmounted by a capital, in each side of 
 which is wrought a hollow of an oblong shape. On the 
 left of the female figure in the centre is a second female, 
 more youthful in her appearance, naked to the waist. 
 Her right arm descends perpendicularly, and the hand is 
 laid upon the rock or bank on which she sits, to support 
 the weight of her body, which somewhat inclines back- 
 ward ; her head is turned round, apparently looking at 
 the male figure on the opposite side of the group. Her 
 left hand holds a wand or spear perpendicularly. The
 
 12 VASES. 
 
 beautiful and youthful face of this figure has a placid 
 expression, but mingled, perhaps, with a certain solici- 
 tude, of which the female figure in the centre might be 
 supposed to be the object, and which she might be 
 thought to direct toward the male figure, as if making 
 an inquiry or seeking sympathy. A tree is on the left 
 of this figure, and to the left of this is the portal de- 
 scribed in the first groups. The groups are divided in 
 the upper part of the composition by heads, one of 
 which ornaments the bottom of each handle. Under 
 the foot of the vase is a head or bust representing 
 either a male or female, in the Phrygian bonnet or 
 pyramidal hood. One finger is raised to the mouth as 
 if in token of silence. The head or bust is oversha- 
 dowed by a tree. 
 
 Of all these figures many explanations have been of- 
 fered. Pietro Santo Bartoli,* by whom it was first 
 published, thought that the subject engraved on this 
 vase relates to the birth of Alexander the Great. M. 
 d'Hancarville t thinks that it represents the well-known 
 fable of Orpheus's descent into Elysium, to recover from 
 thence his beloved Eurydice, so elegantly told by Virgil. 
 M. Von Veltheim t supposes that the story of Admetus 
 recovering his wife Alcestes from Elysium is engraved 
 on it. And the learned M. Ennio Quirino Visconti 
 
 Gli Antichi SepulcrL 
 
 f Recherches sur les Arts de la Grece, &c. torn. ii. p. 133. 
 
 J Gent. Magazine, April 1792. 
 
 II Museo Pio Clemen tino, torn. vi. p 71.
 
 VASES. Id 
 
 reckons that it records the marriage of Peleus and 
 Thetis. Subjects of the same kind are to be seen on 
 many sarcophagi : they probably all related to the fables 
 of Elysium, and the state of the dead. But of the many 
 authors who have mentioned this celebrated vase, I 
 think the philosophic poet Dr. Darwin* has given the 
 most probable account of it. He is of opinion that the 
 figures of this funeral urn do not represent the history 
 of any particular family or event, but that they express 
 part of the ceremonies of the Eleusinian mysteries : he 
 therefore divides this vase into two compartments, and 
 reckons that the first is emblematical of mortal life, ex- 
 pressed by a dying lady, or Libitina, holding an inverted 
 torch ; she sits on ruins, under a tree of deciduous leaf, 
 attended by two persons who seem to express the terror 
 with which mankind look upon death : and that the 
 second compartment represents immortal life, expressed 
 by a hero entering the gate of Elysium, conducted by 
 Divine Love, and received by Immortality, who is to 
 present him to Pluto, the judge of what company he is 
 fit to keep in Elysium. 
 
 Here by fall'n columns and disjoin'd arcades, 
 On mould'ring stones, beneath deciduous shades, 
 Sits HUMAN KIND in hieroglyphic state, 
 Serious, and pond'ring on their changeful fate ; 
 While with inverted torch and swimming eyes 
 Sinks the fair shade of MORTAL LIFE, and dies. 
 There the pale ghost thro' Death's wide portal bends 
 His timid feet, the dusky steep descends : 
 
 * Botanic Garden, canto ii.
 
 VASES. 
 
 With smiles assuasive LOVE DIVINE invites, 
 Guides on broad wing, with torch uplifted lights 
 IMMORTAL LIFE, her hand extending, courts 
 The ling'ring form, his tott'ring step supports ; 
 Leads on to Pluto's realms the dreary way, 
 And gives him trembling to Elysian day. 
 Beneath, in sacred robes the PRIESTESS drest, 
 The coif close-hooded, and the flutt'ring vest, 
 With pointing finger guides th' initiate youth, 
 Unweaves the many-colour 'd veil of Truth, 
 Drives the profane from Mystery's bolted door, 
 And Silence guards the Eleusinian lore. 
 
 Pl.ll.
 
 run. \ 
 
 ALTARS. 
 
 IN the religious system of every people, from the first 
 mode of religious worship adopted by man, to the esta- 
 blishment of Christianity, the use of sacrifices appears 
 to have been universal. The place reared for the offering 
 of sacrifices of every kind was termed an ALTAR. The 
 use of altars must therefore have been as ancient and 
 as general as the practice of worshipping by sacrifice. 
 In the earliest times, when bare utility was only con- 
 sidered, altars were of almost instantaneous construction 
 and temporary, and hence composed of a mound of turf, 
 a heap of stones, or such-like rude materials. The altar
 
 16 ALTARS. 
 
 which Jacob set up at Bethel was merely the stone on 
 which he rested.* Such was also the altar of Gideon :t 
 and the first altar which Moses erected by the command 
 of God was made only of earth. Pausanias relates, that 
 upon Mount Citheron there was an altar of wood. At 
 Ephesus was one composed of the horns of animals. 
 In the magnificent temple of Jupiter at Babylon there 
 was an altar of massive gold. The altars used by the 
 Greeks and Romans were sometimes made of bronze, 
 but for the most part of stone and marble. Their shape 
 was either square, or oblong-, or round, sometimes trian- 
 gular, and in some instances polygonal. They were 
 adorned with sculpture expressing the gods, &c. to whom 
 they were consecrated, or representing their distinguish- 
 ing symbols. 
 
 Altars regarded the east ; and, when placed near the 
 statue of the god to whom they were dedicated, always 
 stood lower than the statue, that the suppliants and sa- 
 crificers might look upward to the divinity, and stand, 
 as decorum requires, at a different height to the god t. 
 The heights of altars were so adjusted, that those of 
 Jupiter and all the celestial gods might be placed as high 
 as convenience would admit. Those of Vesta, and the 
 gods of the earth and sea, were situated lower . The 
 manner of consecrating altars varied according to the 
 purpose to which they were devoted, and the ceremony 
 
 Gen. xx. 8. f Judges vi. J Vide Vignette IV. ' 
 
 Vitruvius, lib. iv. c. 8.
 
 ALTARS. 17 
 
 was more or less expensive according- to the circum- 
 stances of the worshipper. They were usually made 
 sacred by putting- a crown upon them, anointing- them 
 with oil, and then offering- prayers and oblations to 
 them. Sometimes they added an execration against all 
 that should presume to profane them. At the same 
 time they inscribed upon them the name of the deity, 
 and the cause of their dedication. Altars were not con- 
 fined in their use to animal sacrifices : upon some only 
 meal or cakes or fruit was offered ; upon others incense 
 fumed, and libations of wine and oil were poured. Some 
 altars merely denoted a place set apart for prayer. 
 Wherever an altar was erected, the g-od to whom it 
 was dedicated was believed to be in that place more 
 immediately present. 
 
 Altars varied with regard to their qualities, the uses 
 to which they were applied, and the objects to which 
 they were appropriated. Hence we read of altars 
 sacred to gods, heroes, virtues, vices, diseases, &c. and 
 of inner and outer, of stationary and portable, of public 
 and private altars. They were not only placed in and 
 adjacent* to the temples of their respective gods, but 
 were erected upon mountains and high places, in groves, 
 or under the shade of a single tree, on the sea-coast, and 
 by the way-side, on the boundaries of fields, in the 
 public places of cities, and in the lariaries or private 
 chapels of domestic habitations. 
 
 * Vide Vignette I II. 
 D
 
 18 ALTARS. 
 
 On public festivals they were hung with wreaths of 
 flowers, and ornamented with the leaves and branches 
 of the trees sacred to the respective gods to whose 
 service they were set apart. In times of public calamity 
 they were crowded with prostrate suppliants deprecating 
 impending dangers or present evils, and amongst these 
 suppliants the larger portion were women, who, in the 
 phrensy of grief, tore their dishevelled hair, beat with 
 wild fury their breasts, and mingled with their loud 
 lamentations the most piercing shrieks.* 
 
 The ancients also, on all solemn occasions, in making 
 alliances, confirming treaties of peace, and in taking 
 an oath, swore upon and by the altar. Before them 
 nuptials were solemnized, vows were made, and friend- 
 ships were cemented. 
 
 Altars afforded an asylum or place of refuge to slaves 
 from the cruelty of their masters, to insolvent debtors, 
 and to criminals ; where it was reckoned impious to 
 touch them, and whence it was unlawful to drag them. 
 We can trace their sanctity to the earliest times. Upon 
 Troy being taken, Priam fled for protection to the altar 
 of Jupiter.t Polyxena, who was to be sacrificed to 
 
 Ha lacrymis sparsere Deos, hae pectora duro 
 Afflixere solo, lacerasque in limine sacro 
 Attonitae fudere comas votisque vocari 
 Assuetis, crebris feriunt ululatibus aures : 
 Nee cuncto summi templa jacuSre Tonantis, 
 Divisere Deos, et nullis defuit aris 
 Invidiam factura parens. LUCAN. lib. 1. 
 
 t Pausanias, Corinth.
 
 ALTARS. 
 
 19 
 
 appease Achilles's ghost, is advised to go to the altars ; * 
 and they continued to be sacred from the heroical times 
 till the reign of Tiberius Caesar, who, upon consideration 
 of the many inconveniences which must necessarily be 
 the effect of tolerating so many villains as were always 
 harboured in them, dissolved them all, preserving only 
 to Juno Samia and one of ^Esculapius's temples their 
 ancient privileges. Suetonius, indeed, says, that he did 
 abolish the privileges of asyla in all parts of the world.! 
 But from Tacitus, a more exact historian, we learn that 
 the privileges of sanctuaries were not then wholly 
 taken away, but only regulated and reformed.t 
 
 * Euripides Hecuba, ver. 146. f Tiberius, c. xxxvii. 
 
 J Annal. lib. iii. 6063.
 
 n.v. 
 
 P A T E R M. 
 
 LIBATION amongst the ancients was an essential part of 
 the solemn service of sacrifices. In performing this reli- 
 gious ceremony the priest poured upon the head of the 
 victim, or upon the offering of whatever kind it was, 
 some wine, oil, milk, or other liquor, in honour of the 
 deity to whom the sacrifice was offered. The vessel 
 which contained the libation, as also that which received 
 the blood of the victim destined for sacrifice, was by the 
 Etruscans and Romans denominated a Patera. The uten- 
 sil adopted for similar purposes by the Greeks appears
 
 22 PATE R JE. 
 
 to have had various names.* The patera was a broad, 
 shallow, circular dish made of baked clay, bronze, silver 
 or gold. Those made of baked clay exhibit some of the 
 most elegant specimens of these instruments. The paint- 
 ings with which they are ornamented are executed in 
 the same manner as those which adorn the earthen vases, 
 the figures being of a yellowish red colour sometimes 
 relieved by white upon a black ground.t The Etruscant 
 bronze patera had a flat handle attached to it, about the 
 length of the diameter of the patera, and which was 
 sometimes ornamented at the outer extremity with 
 the head of some animal. The Etruscan paterae are 
 valuable, as they afford some remarkable examples of 
 the state of the arts amongst this ancient and ingenious 
 people, and still more so on account of the inscriptions 
 they bear, by which are preserved to us some of the few 
 remains of the written characters and of the language 
 in use among them : they exhibit moreover the earliest 
 specimens of the art of engraving upon metal, as the 
 subjects with which they are adorned are not in relief, 
 but cut upon their surface with a sharp instrument. 
 These subjects seem confined to the mythology, the 
 history, and the games of the Etruscans. The Romans 
 adopted the Etruscan patera, occasionally varying its 
 
 * AXeio-oi', Horn. II. xi. 773. A7ras, Odyss. xv. 149. A.p.vftov, Odyss. 
 iii. 444. 2$aya>i/, Hesych. hac voce. Pollux Onomast. x. 65. 97. STTOV- 
 8( lov, Pollux Onomast. x. 65. Aoipuuv, Ibid. Ma-yi?, Ib. vi. 64. 87 ; vii. 
 22 ; x. 102, 103. f Vide Plates 70, 71, 72. 
 
 I Vide Plates 64, 65, 66, 67. Vide Plates 64, 66, 67.
 
 PATERAE. 
 
 23 
 
 form, sometimes retaining- sometimes using 1 it without 
 the handle. Upon coins and medals,* and on the 
 sculpture of the ancients, the patera is frequently seen 
 placed in the hands of the gods as a symbol of the sacri- 
 fices which were offered to them, or in those of the 
 priests, as an attribute of their office. The offerings 
 borne by the initiated in the processions connected 
 with the religious mysteries were carried in a patera, t 
 A serpent eating out of a patera is the symbol of 
 Hygeia, the daughter of ^Esculapius. In the represen- 
 tation of Ganymede presenting ambrosia to the eagle 
 of Jupiter, he is figured with a patera in his hand.t 
 
 * Rasche Lexicon rei nummariee. Patera. 
 f Millin. Peint. des vases, torn. ii. p. 61. 
 
 J Pierres gravies du Baron de Stosch, avec explications par Schlichtegroll. 
 Planche xxxii. 
 
 FI.VI.
 
 n.vn. 
 
 TRIPODS. 
 
 A TRIPOD, generally speaking, is any vessel, seat, 
 table, &c. standing upon three feet. The use of tripods 
 is of the highest antiquity. In the earliest ages they were 
 instruments appropriated to the services of religion. Of 
 the sacred tripods the most celebrated was that used by 
 the Pythia at Delphos. The first discovery of the famous 
 oracle of Delphos, and the origin of the tripod, which 
 became afterwards an instrument in great use and vene- 
 ration in the religious ceremonies of the ancients, is said 
 to have been as follows : As some goats were feeding 
 
 E
 
 26 TRIPODS. 
 
 upon Mount Parnassus, (at the foot of which stood Del- 
 phos,) near a deep and large cavern with a narrow en- 
 trance, they were observed by the goatherd to frisk and 
 leap after a strange manner, and to utter unusual sounds 
 immediately upon their approach to the mouth of the 
 cavern ; upon which he had the curiosity to view it, and 
 found himself seized with the like fit of madness, skip- 
 ping, dancing, and foretelling things to come. At the 
 news of this discovery multitudes flocked thither, many 
 of whom were possessed with such phrenetic enthusiasm 
 that they threw themselves headlong into the opening 
 of the cavern ; insomuch that it was necessary to issue 
 an edict, forbidding all persons to approach the cavern. 
 This surprising place was treated with singular vene- 
 ration, and soon converted into a kind of chapel. About 
 the time when the oracle was first discovered, the whole 
 mystery requisite for obtaining the prophetic gift was 
 to approach the cavern and to inhale the vapour that 
 issued from it, and then the god inspired all persons 
 indifferently ; but at length several enthusiasts, in the 
 excess of their fury, having thrown themselves head- 
 long into the cavern, it was thought expedient to con- 
 trive a prevention of this accident, which frequently 
 occurred. Accordingly they placed over the hole 
 whence the vapour issued a machine, which they called 
 a TRIPOD, because it had three feet, and commissioned 
 a woman to seat herself in this sort of chair, where she 
 might imbibe the vapour without danger, because the
 
 TRIPODS. 27 
 
 three feet of the machine stood firmly upon the rock. 
 Great preparations were made for giving mysteriousness 
 to the oracle, and for commanding the respect that was 
 paid to it. The priestess, before she ascended the tripod, 
 fasted three days, and bathed herself in the fountain of 
 Castalia. She drank water from that fountain, and 
 chewed laurel leaves gathered near it. She was then 
 led into the sanctuary by the priests, who placed her 
 upon the tripod. As soon as she began to be agitated 
 by the divine exhalation, her hair stood an end, her 
 aspect became wild and ghastly, her mouth began to 
 foam, and her whole body was suddenly seized with 
 violent tremblings. In this condition she attempted to 
 escape from the prophets, who detained her by force, 
 while her shrieks and howlings made the whole temple 
 to resound, and filled the by-standers with a sacred 
 horror. At length, unable to resist the impulse of the 
 god, she surrendered herself to him, and at certain in- 
 tervals uttered from the bottom of her stomach some 
 unconnected words, which the prophet ranged in order, 
 and put in form of verse, giving them a connexion 
 which they had not when they were delivered by the 
 priestess. The oracle being pronounced, she was taken 
 off the tripod, and conducted back to her cell, where 
 she continued several days to recover herself from her 
 conflict. Lucan* tells us that speedy death was frequently 
 the consequence of her enthusiasm. The tripod, which, 
 
 * Pharsal. lib. iv.
 
 28 TRIPODS. 
 
 in its origin, was only the seat of the Pythia, became 
 afterwards an object of reverence, and closely connected 
 with the mysteries of the ancients. 
 
 On the statues and representations of Apollo the tripod 
 is one of the most common accompaniments of this god.* 
 The tripod was frequently introduced alone in sculpture 
 and upon coins as the symbol of this deity, and particu- 
 larly upon the coins of those towns where Apollo was 
 more particularly worshipped.t Tripods were prizes 
 frequently bestowed upon the victors in the various 
 public games celebrated in Greece ; and in those dedi- 
 cated to Apollo Triopius, the rewards were entirely con- 
 fined to tripods of brass. Herodotus, Pausanias, and 
 others, relate that the Grecian temples abounded with 
 consecrated tripods. Though many of these were used 
 as altars, upon which presentations of corn and fruits 
 were made to the gods, and incense was fumed, yet for 
 the most part they were the votive offerings made by 
 nations and princes, by those who had officiated as the 
 priests of the god of day, by the victors in the games, or 
 by private individuals. The tripods thus devoted varied 
 in costliness, in elegance, and in size, according to the 
 opulence, the piety, and the taste of the donor. The 
 Greeks, upon the occasion of the splendid victory ob- 
 tained over the Persians at Platea, sent to Delphi 
 a magnificent tripod of gold, the cost of which was 
 
 Vide Vignette III. 
 
 t Rasche Lexicon rei nummariae. Tripus.
 
 TRIPODS. 
 
 29 
 
 the value of the tenth of the spoils taken from the 
 enemy. The tripods which have been preserved 
 to these times are those which were made of marble 
 or bronze. 
 
 n.vra.
 
 1'l.IX. 
 
 LAMPS. 
 
 THE ancients, who have enveloped in fable the history 
 of almost every thing, relate that lamps were first made 
 by Vulcan, supplied with oil by Pallas, and lighted by 
 Prometheus. This account the Greeks pretend to have 
 received by tradition from the Egyptians.* Without 
 pursuing the uncertain inquiry into their origin, it will 
 be sufficient to know that their use is of the highest an- 
 tiquity. They are alluded to in some of the remotest 
 periods of the history of the Scriptures: hence it has been 
 asserted that all other nations have derived the know- 
 ledge of their utility from the ancestors of the Hebrews. 
 
 * Museum Passerii, torn. i. p. 3.
 
 32 LAMPS. 
 
 Their use in ancient Egypt was carried to a considerable 
 extent, for there was no rejoicing-, no festival of any 
 consideration at all, unaccompanied with illumination. 
 At the sacrifice solemnized at Sais, the assembly was held 
 by night ; they suspended before their houses in the open 
 air lamps which were filled with oil mixed with salt; a 
 wick floated on the top, which burnt all night : this 
 solemnity was called the feast of lamps. Such of the 
 Egyptians as could not attend the ceremony, thought 
 themselves obliged to observe the evening of the festival, 
 and in like manner burnt lamps before their houses : 
 thus, on this night, not Sais only, but all Egypt was 
 illuminated.* In the heroic ages public rejoicings were 
 celebrated with illuminations.t The Romans on their 
 public festivals adorned the front of their houses with 
 branches of laurel and rows of lighted lamps. Caesar, 
 to give greater splendour to his triumph over the Gauls, 
 went to the Capitol with elephants carrying lamps on 
 candelabra.^ Individuals illuminated their houses with 
 lamps upon their appointment to some public office in 
 the state, or upon their nuptials. Lamps were usually 
 placed in the tombs of the ancients. Sometimes, in the 
 sepulchres of princes, men were employed to watch the 
 flame, and keep it perpetually burning. Instances are 
 upon record in which the opulent at their death released 
 by will some of their slaves from servitude, provided 
 they occasionally attended to the testator's sepulchral 
 
 * Herod. Eut. 62. f ^Esch, Agam. 92. J Suetonius.
 
 LAMPS. 33 
 
 lamp. The will of Maevius is one among the many of 
 this kind which have been preserved. / set-free Saccus 
 my slave, with Eutychia and Irene, my female slaves, 
 on condition that each of them in their turn shall, from 
 month to month, supply with oil the lamp which shall 
 burn in my tomb. 
 
 A notion formerly prevailed, that the lamps which 
 have been preserved from the ruins of time were con- 
 fined to sepulchral uses; and some antiquaries* have 
 maintained the opinion that the ancients had "the secret 
 of making- lamps that were inextinguishable," alleging 
 several that had been found burning on the opening of 
 tombs fifteen or sixteen hundred years old : but these 
 relations have long since been treated as fables. Pas- 
 seri,f who published engravings of a collection of 322 
 lamps belonging to the Museum at Pesaro, has written 
 with considerable learning and ability concerning the 
 use of lamps ; and in his classification of them has ar- 
 ranged them into sacred, public, domestic, and sepulchral. 
 But though lamps were doubtless employed to all these 
 purposes, J yet to distinguish, either by their form or 
 their ornaments, the one kind from the other, to select 
 those which adorned the temples of the gods, and gave 
 brilliancy to the pomp of religious festivals and cere- 
 monies ; to determine upon those which were designed 
 
 * Licetus de Lucern. Antiq. 
 
 f Lucernae fictiles Musei Passerii, 3 torn. fol. Pisaur. 1739. 
 
 t Polyb. lib. xxxiv. c. 3. Juvenal. Sat. 12. Mart. lib. x. ep. 6.
 
 34 LAMPS. 
 
 for domestic accommodation or splendour ; or to point 
 out the characteristics of those which illuminated the 
 gloom of the chambers of the tomb, is an attempt which, 
 however specious in theory, facts directly oppose : for 
 the lamps which have been found in the houses of 
 Herculaneum and Pompeii, resemble, in their general 
 character, those which have by some writers been sup- 
 posed to have been set apart for the service of religion, 
 or appropriated to the sepulchral chamber. 
 
 The most ancient lamps were made of clay, and then 
 hardened by fire ; and as this was a material manufac- 
 tured with facility, and at little expense, lamps of this 
 kind always continued to be in considerable demand. 
 Those made of bronze were in the next degree most 
 common. They were made also of iron and of glass ; 
 but few remains of the former kind, and still fewer of the 
 latter, exist in the cabinets of the curious. Pausanias* 
 and Athenseusf speak of lamps of gold and of silver. In 
 the cabinet of the National Library at Paris is a magnifi- 
 cent antique lamp of marble, made to receive ten wicks. 
 Lamps with one wick were principally used by the poor. 
 Their lights were more or less numerous according to 
 the circumstances of those who used them, or the pur- 
 poses to which they were applied. In the Museum at 
 Portici are lamps made to receive five, nine, ten, twelve, 
 and fourteen wicks. CallimachusJ speaks of a votive 
 
 * Pausanias, lib. i. 26. f Athenaeus, torn. iv. p. 130. 
 
 J Callim. Epig. xxiii. in Antholog. Brunckii. t. i. p. 466.
 
 LAMPS. 35 
 
 lamp in the temple of Serapis which had twenty wicks ; 
 and Athenaeus* makes mention of another in the Pry- 
 taneum at Tarentum, which had as many lights as there 
 were days in the year. Lamps varied exceedingly in 
 their form. Sometimes they were shallow, flat, and 
 circular, or oval, with one or more orifices at their 
 circumference to receive the wick, and with an aperture 
 in the field of the lamp to receive the oil and to admit 
 the air necessary to keep alive the flame ; sometimes they 
 were made tall and deep, assuming every shape, whether 
 real or grotesque, which the artist could imitate or ima- 
 gine.f Their upper surface was, for the most part, 
 ornamented with mythological or allegorical subjects in 
 relief. When in use they were placed on candelabra, 
 and on low tripods, or suspended from the wall or the 
 ceiling, or from stands designed for this purpose.^ 
 
 * Athenaeus, xv. 19. f Vide Vignette X. I Vide Vignette IX. 
 
 P1.X. 

 
 n.xi. 
 
 CANDELABRA. 
 
 IT would be a vain research to attempt to ascertain 
 with precision the antiquity of the use of candelabra : 
 thus much may, however, with safety be assumed, that 
 as soon as mankind began to study in the smallest 
 degree the comforts, or to cultivate the more useful 
 arts of life, these articles of furniture must have been 
 amongst the earliest inventions. 
 
 In the opinion of Visconti* the Egyptians are the 
 people amongst whom is found the earliest trace of 
 their existence, and hence they have been esteemed the 
 
 * Museo Pio Clementine, torn. iv. p. 4.
 
 38 CANDELABRA. 
 
 inventors of them. Of their ancient usage among the 
 Jews we have an unquestionable record in the Scrip- 
 tures, where the following directions are given for 
 fashioning the magnificent candelabrum which was 
 placed first in the tabernacle, and afterwards in the 
 holy temple of the Jews. 
 
 " And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold ; 
 of beaten work shall the candlestick be made : his shaft 
 and his branches, his bowls, his knops and his flowers 
 shall be of the same. 
 
 " And six branches shall come out of the sides of it : 
 three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, 
 and three branches of the candlestick out of the other 
 side. 
 
 " Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop 
 and a flower in one branch ; and three bowls made 
 like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and 'a 
 flower ; so in the six branches that come out of the 
 candlestick. 
 
 " And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made 
 like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers. 
 
 " And there shall be a knop under two branches of 
 the same, and a knop under two branches of the 
 same, and a knop under two branches of the same, ac- 
 cording to the six branches that proceed out of the 
 candlestick. 
 
 " Their knops and their branches shall be of the 
 same : all of it shall be one beaten work of pure gold.
 
 CANDELABRA. 39 
 
 " And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: 
 and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may 
 give light over against it." Exod. xxv. 31 37. 
 
 This splendid candlestick stood on the south side of 
 the Adytum, or antechamber to the sanctuary, and 
 served to illuminate the altar of perfume and the table 
 of shevvbread, which stood in the same place. When 
 the Romans under Titus destroyed the hallowed tem- 
 ple at Jerusalem, the golden candelabrum -with the 
 other treasures was removed to Rome. Upon a trium- 
 phal arch erected at the foot of Mount Palatine in 
 honour of Titus there may be seen at this day, in a 
 most interesting bas-relief, a faithful representation of 
 this candelabrum, which is exhibited as borne in pro- 
 cession among the spoils which were carried from Je- 
 rusalem in triumph to Rome. A copy of this piece of 
 sculpture forms the subject of the vignette placed at 
 the head of this essay. 
 
 In the earliest history of the manners and customs 
 of mankind, as related by Homer,* we read that the 
 flame which blazed upon the humble hearth answered 
 the double purpose of conveying the comforts of 
 warmth and light. The first improvement upon this 
 mode of illuminating an apartment was to burn dry or 
 resinous woods upon an altar ; and when the use of oil 
 was known, and lamps began to be invented, candelabra 
 assumed their appropriate and characteristic form. 
 
 * Odyssey, xix. 633.
 
 40 CANDELABRA. 
 
 The form of some of the candelabra which have 
 been discovered in Herculaneum and Pompeii have 
 given rise to a conjecture concerning their origin. 
 Among those which were intended to be moveable, 
 and were used for domestic purposes, there are in- 
 stances of the shaft representing a knotted cane, or a 
 spiry branch with truncated shoots and leaf stalks.* 
 The ancients were remarkable for their taste in adapt- 
 ing ornaments to things of common use, to augment 
 their utility, and at the same time preserve the type of 
 the objects which gave rise to any useful invention. 
 The buds and shoots represented adorn the shaft of the 
 candelabrum, which would otherwise be too plain ; they 
 are convenient in affording a firm grasp to the hand, 
 and at the same time they appear to give the history 
 and agreeably recall the simple origin of these utensils, 
 which in their primitive form consisted merely of a reed 
 or shaft supporting a tablet, and fixed in a flat base 
 or stand. 
 
 Candelabra vary greatly in shape, and many of them 
 present models of exquisite taste in form, proportion, 
 ornament, and execution. They consisted generally of 
 a column let into a triangular altar or a flat base, 
 resting upon three feet, and surmounted by a broad 
 but shallow plateau or bason. The top varied in size 
 or depth, as it was used for a lamp-stand, or designed 
 for a brasier, on which incense was offered and perfumes 
 
 Vide Plate 83.
 
 CANDELABRA. 41 
 
 were burnt. If the candelabrum was made to hold more 
 than one lamp, branches, from which the lamps were 
 suspended, diverged from the top or from the sides of 
 the stem.* The stem or shaft was sometimes formed of 
 several pieces, each portion terminating with a flat top. 
 When thus constructed they were made of marble, 
 and used in their taller or shorter form, as suited the 
 purposes of convenience or ornament. 
 
 Candelabra were made of gold and silver, of bronze,t 
 and iron and marble,t and were adorned with the richest 
 workmanship, as suited the circumstances of the indi- 
 viduals, or the occasion for which they were designed. 
 The most magnificent and splendid were placed in the 
 temples of the gods. The figures and ornaments which 
 graced them had always an allusion to the worship or 
 history of the deity to whom they were consecrated. In 
 Cicero we have an account of a candelabrum designed 
 for the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus at Rome, which 
 was of vast magnitude, executed by the most skilful 
 artists, and profusely adorned with the most brilliant 
 gems. The candelabra which illuminated the palaces, 
 the public baths, and the spacious halls of the ancients, 
 were frequently not less magnificent and costly than 
 those which were destined to sacred purposes. Homer, || 
 in his description of the palace of Alcinous, king of Cor- 
 
 Vide Vignette IX. f Vide Plates 83, 84, 85. 
 
 J Vide Plates 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93. 
 
 In Verrem, lib. iv. c. 28. || Odjss. vii. 100103. 
 
 G
 
 42 CANDELABRA. 
 
 cyra, speaks of candelabra of sculptured gold, represent- 
 ing- youths standing upon altars, and holding in their 
 hands flaming torches. Athenaeus,* in describing the 
 furniture of a splendid apartment, mentions candelabra, 
 of corresponding magnificence : and Cicero asserts that 
 not a house in Sicily was without these utensils made 
 of silver. Bronze was the metal of which they were 
 commonly manufactured. These measured in height 
 seldom more than six feet, and oftentimes did not exceed 
 one foot. The column of the candelabrum was for the 
 most part round, either fluted horizontally or spirally ; 
 or, as was before mentioned, represented a knotted cane, 
 or a spiny branch, or a trunk of a tree, as the fancy of 
 the artist suggested. In the Museum at Portici is one 
 instance of a candelabrum with a square shaft. 
 
 Candelabra were not entirely confined to the purpose 
 of bearing lamps. In the temples they stood, in some 
 instances, as emblems of that glorious luminary which 
 is the source and fountain of light and heat. In the 
 public and domestic sacrifices they were frequently 
 used for holding the incense which fumed before the 
 statues of the gods.t They have been found deposited 
 in the dark chambers of the tomb, and their appropriate 
 place there seems to have been at the head of the de- 
 ceased :t they appear on the types of many medals, and 
 
 * Deipnos. 1. iv. c. 2. f Museo Pio Clementine, torn. iv. p. 4. 
 
 I Vide Vignette XVII. 
 
 Rasche Lexicon rei nutnmariie. Candelabra.
 
 CANDELABRA. 
 
 43 
 
 have been sometimes sculptured in bas-reliefs on the 
 outside of temples, where they were introduced to show 
 that the building was consecrated to the gods. 
 
 Tarentum and the Isle of ^gina were considered by 
 the Romans as the most celebrated manufactories of 
 candelabra.* Those made at the former place were 
 esteemed for the elegance of their external form, and 
 those at the latter for their finished workmanship. Can- 
 delabra which combined these excellencies were of the 
 most expensive kind : and it is recorded by Pliny,t to 
 the reproach of Gegania, an opulent Roman lady, that 
 she had given 50,000 sesterces for a candelabrum, which 
 was the joint production of both those celebrated ma- 
 nufactories. 
 
 Pliny, lib. xxxiv. 3. 
 
 t Lib. xxxiv. 6. 

 
 Pl.XIIl. 
 
 T A Z Z A S. 
 
 TAZZAS were large basons or reservoirs of water set 
 apart for the various lustrations which were in general 
 use among the ancients. 
 
 That the gods could not be approached by the im- 
 pure, was a maxim inculcated in all the religious creeds 
 of the ancients by a countless variety of modes of puri- 
 fication. The most universal symbol of purification 
 was water. If we examine the manners and customs 
 of the Indians, the Egyptians, and the Israelites, we 
 shall find it to be of the remotest antiquity as well as 
 in the most general use. The custom of lustration 
 prevailed to a considerable extent among the Greeks
 
 46 TAZZAS. 
 
 and the Romans. In the temples stood tazzas contain- 
 ing the lustral water, beyond which the profane (for 
 such were all the worshippers esteemed before they had 
 performed their ablutions) could not pass. Sacrifices, 
 offerings, vows, prayer and thanksgiving, were religious 
 acts which were never performed by the devout wor- 
 shipper without scrupulously observing, in the first 
 instance, the ceremony of washing. Nestor presumes 
 not to offer his vows to Jupiter, for the success of the 
 embassy to Achilles, before he has performed the rite of 
 ablution.* The ceremony of washing of hands is care- 
 fully observed by Achilles before he invokes the gods for 
 the preservation of his friend Patroclus,t and by Hector 
 before he pours forth a libation to Jupiter.t The same 
 rite was observed by the Greeks when they offered the 
 common sacrifice for the success of their arms. 
 
 In the sacred mysteries of the ancients, various cere- 
 monies of purification were among the earliest rites of 
 initiation. Numerous representations are preserved on 
 the Greek vases of the ablutions which preceded these 
 mystical solemnities, where large lavers form a principal 
 object in the picture.il Ablution was also one of the 
 principal preparatory ceremonies of marriage.1I Near 
 the fountains in the neighbourhood of the Gymnasium, 
 where the Athletae exercised before they presented 
 
 * Iliad, ix. 171. t H. xvi. 230. J II. vi. 266. II. iv. 499. 
 || Tischbein. Recueil de Gravures aprfes des Vases Antiques, i. 59. ii. 28. 
 31. 36. 
 
 T Vide Vignette XIII. Montfaucon l'Antiquit6 expliq. torn. iii. 220.
 
 T A Z Z A S. 47 
 
 themselves at the Olympic games,' lavers were placed, 
 which were destined for the use of the young men, who 
 had always occasion to wash themselves after the gym- 
 nastic exercises. Of one of these sort of tazzas we 
 have an example in the following vignette taken from 
 a Greek vase in the Hamilton collection, described 
 by Tischbein.* On the bason is inscribed the word 
 AHMO2IA, which denotes that it was intended for 
 public use. 
 
 * Recueil de Gravures, &c. i. 58. 
 
 ri.xn.
 
 *
 
 C I P P I. 
 
 A CIPPUS is a low column with an inscription, as a 
 memorial of something remarkable. Cippi were in form 
 sometimes square and sometimes round, and frequently 
 without base or capital. They served for various pur- 
 poses among- the ancients. When erected by the road- 
 side, with distances engraved upon them, they were 
 termed milliary columns. In this situation they were 
 also set up to direct the way to travellers. The public 
 roads were perhaps the greatest of all the stupendous 
 works of the Romans ; (for they were made with amaz- 
 ing- labour, at an enormous expense, and extended to 
 
 H
 
 50 CIPPI. 
 
 the utmost limits of the empire ;) the charge of them, 
 therefore, was intrusted to men of the highest rank.* 
 Augustus himself undertook the management of those 
 round Rome. In commemoration of this fact cippi 
 were erected on the roads under his superintendence, 
 and medals were struck with cippi upon them.t As 
 the Roman burying-ground was, for the most part, by 
 the road-side, cippi were placed to mark its boundaries, 
 or as memorials of affection and friendship in honour of 
 the deceased. Sepulchralcippi were also placed in the 
 magnificent mausoleums of the ancients. The cippi 
 found in sepulchres have been often taken for altars, on 
 account of the similarity of their forms, and the corre- 
 sponding richness of their ornaments, especially when 
 the inscription has not contained an epitaph, properly 
 speaking. The distinction is, however, very slight, as 
 these cippi were consecrated to the infernal deities, 
 and to the manes in particular ; and they are even 
 sometimes excavated in the upper part in the form of 
 a bason or crater : there are instances of cippi being 
 perforated from top to bottom to receive libations, after 
 the manner of some altars. The celebration of the 
 secular games in the times of Augustus, of Domitian, 
 and of Severus, was recorded on cippi, as appears on the 
 types of some of the coins struck in the reigns of each of 
 
 * Bergier Hist, des Grands Chemins de 1'Empire Remain, 2 torn. 4 to. 
 1728. 
 t Vide Vignette XVI.
 
 C I PPI. 
 
 51 
 
 those emperors.* Cippi were used for landmarks; and 
 when the circuit of a new city was traced by the plough, 
 they were placed at equal distances, on which sacrifices 
 were offered, and marked the situation of the towers. 
 On vases, on medals, and on gems, cippi are frequently 
 introduced, where they are placed near or support some 
 deity or symbolical figure.t 
 
 Rasche Lexicon rei nummariae. Cippus. t Vide Vignette XV.
 
 n.x\'ir. 
 
 SEPULCHRES. 
 
 THE rites of sepulture have been observed by all na- 
 tions with a religious solicitude, and tombs and mau- 
 soleums are among the most eminent remains of 
 antiquity. Where rocks afforded a convenient oppor- 
 tunity, it was an idea at once natural, and of peculiar 
 dropriety, to excavate in these silent retreats the 
 habitations of the dead. The greatest part of the He- 
 brew sepulchres were hollow places dug in rocks j as 
 for example, that bought by Abraham for the burying of
 
 54 SEPULCHRES. 
 
 Sarah ;* and those of the kings of Judah and Israel. In 
 Egypt the honours paid to the dead partook of the 
 nature of areligious homage. By the process of embalm- 
 ing they endeavoured to preserve the body from the 
 common laws of nature, by which every substance is de- 
 composed, and returns to its natural elements. They 
 also provided magnificent and durable habitations for 
 the dead, proud tombs, the astonishment of all suc- 
 ceeding nations. Such are their stupendous pyramids. 
 The common graves of primitive Greece were nothing 
 but caverns dug in the earth, and called hypogea : but 
 those of later ages were more elaborately wrought : 
 they were commonly paved with stone, had arches 
 built over them, and were adorned with splendid em- 
 bellishments in an equal degree with the houses of the 
 living ; insomuch that mourners commonly retired into 
 the vaults of the dead, and there lamented over their 
 relations for many days and nights together. It was in 
 one of these subterraneous sepulchres that the Ephesian 
 matron (so famous for her tenderness, levity, and 
 fickleness) had resolved to terminate her days. Rome 
 rivalled Greece in the splendour and magnificence of 
 its tombs.t The mausoleums of Caecilia Metella and of 
 Hadrian give a high idea of the riches and grandeur 
 of the persons therein interred. Of the former noble 
 sepulchre the lower part is square, and the upper part 
 
 Gen. xxiii. 4, 6. f Vide Plates 105 to 120.
 
 SEPULCHRES. 55 
 
 round. The walls are of a vast thickness, and incrusted 
 with Tiburtine stones of an immense size. An elegant 
 frieze of marble runs round the whole, ornamented with 
 oxen's heads joined together with festoons, above which 
 are paterae and other decorations. The beautiful 
 sarcophagus, in which lay the body of Csecilia, stood a 
 few years ago in the court of the Farnese palace. Un- 
 touched by barbarous hands this sepulchre would have 
 lasted while the earth remained : but in the low age, 
 during the civil wars of the Roman barons, it was con. 
 verted into a castle, and they built a parapet and port- 
 holes round its top. Piranesi* has not only published 
 plates of this sepulchre, but has described the method 
 by which the huge stones and marbles used in this 
 building might have been raised. The Moles Hadriani 
 or Mausoleum of Hadrian, was the most superb 
 sepulchral monument ever constructed at Rome. 
 A square base of a great height supported a vast 
 rotunda, surrounded with an open portico of Corin- 
 thian columns. Between the columns and above the 
 cornice of this portico were placed many statues. 
 On each corner of the square base was a man hold- 
 ing a horse, much in the same attitude with those that 
 stood in Constantino's baths on the Quirinal hill ; 
 which has led some antiquaries to suppose that Con- 
 stantine had taken them from this monument. The 
 
 * Ant. Rom. torn. iii. tav, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54.
 
 56 SEPULCHRES. 
 
 whole of this stupendous tomb had been incrusted with 
 marble. The elegant columns that ornament the 
 church of St. Paul on the Ostian road to Rome, and 
 some of those in the church of St. Agnese, are reckoned 
 to have been taken from this sepulchre. The situation 
 as well as the extent of this mausoleum pointed it out 
 for a place of defence when the barbarous nations in- 
 vaded Italy. It was taken and retaken by the Goths 
 and Belisarius. In these different attacks it must have 
 suffered. It is said that the besieged broke the statues 
 and launched their fragments on the besiegers. About 
 the year 593, during the pontificate of Gregory the 
 Great, Rome was afflicted with the plague. It was 
 then pretended that an angel was seen on the top of 
 this building, putting a sword into a scabbard, which 
 was considered as a mark of the cessation of the plague ; 
 and in consequence of this vision the pope gave the 
 name of Castel S. Angel o to the Moles Hadriani. 
 
 The ancients had two different customs with respect 
 to their dead ; for they burnt some and buried others. 
 When the corpse was burnt, it was the office of the 
 nearest relation, as soon as the pile was consumed, and 
 the fire extinguished, to soak the embers with wine, to 
 collect the ashes and bones of the deceased, to besprinkle 
 them with the richest perfumes, with wine, with milk, 
 and with their tears, and then to deposit them in a 
 vessel destined for the purpose. Though it was some-
 
 SEPULCHRES. 57 
 
 times the custom to place the ashes of the dead 
 person in one urn, and the bones in another, hence 
 the former were called cinerary urns, and the latter 
 ossuaries,* yet it was the more general practice to de- 
 posit the whole of the remains of the burnt body in one 
 urn. These urns, like other kinds of vases, were made 
 of various materials, of gold, bronze, glass, clay, marble 
 or porphyry. Their shape was either round or square. 
 The square cinerary urns were more sought after than 
 the round ones, on account of the greater interest which 
 they excite from their inscriptions, the greater variety 
 of their ornaments, and the mythological and historical 
 subjects with which they are embellished. The cinerary 
 urns were generally set in niches made in the thickness 
 of the walls of the sepulchral chambers, called from 
 this arrangement columbaria. t Some of the mauso- 
 leums consisted of several chambers or columbaria. In 
 the Villa Corsinit thirty-four of these chambers were 
 discovered, many of them elegantly ornamented with 
 stucco and painting, and the floors enriched with mosaic 
 work. These paintings perished soon after they were 
 exposed to the air, but happily drawings had been made 
 of them by Bartoli as soon as they were discovered. 
 At Rome they burnt the bodies of the freed slaves, and 
 
 * Gutherius de jure Manium, 150. 
 
 t Vide Plates 113, 114, 117, 118, 119, 120. 
 
 t Vide Plates 119, 120. 
 
 Gli Antichi Sepolcri, da P. S. Bartoli. fol. 1696.
 
 58 SEPULCHRES. 
 
 their ashes were also preserved in urns. In the neigh- 
 bourhood of Rome, where the Albano road separates 
 from the Appian, was discovered, in 1726, the sepulchre 
 of the liberti and servi, &c. of Li via,* the wife of Au- 
 gustus. This extensive monument abounded with urns 
 and inscriptions.t The liberti, &c. entered into societies 
 for building these monuments, and deputed one or more 
 of their number to oversee the work. Thus we find 
 that the freedman Lucius, called Alexa, one of the cura- 
 tors deputed by a company to oversee the building of 
 a sepulchre, executed his trust so much to the satisfac- 
 tion of the company, that they allowed him to choose 
 six places for himself, whilst the others drew lots for 
 theirs.t 
 
 When the bodies of the dead were buried they were 
 simply extended on the floor, or deposited in sarco- 
 phagi, which were placed in the magnificent tombs 
 erected for their reception. Sarcophagi were made of 
 stone, of marble, or of porphyry ; and in general were 
 designed to hold only one corpse, though they were 
 sometimes made sufficiently capacious to receive two || 
 bodies, or even the remains of a whole family.H These 
 monuments of the dead, which in former times have 
 
 * Vide Plate 113. 
 
 f Piranesi Ant. Rom. torn. iii. tav. 21 to tav. 37. 
 
 I Fabrettus, Inscrip. p. 449. Vide Vignette XVII. 
 
 || Euripides, Orestes, 1052. 
 
 ^[ Visconti Museo Pio Clementine V. tav. v.
 
 SEPULCHRES. 59 
 
 been most solemnly consecrated to the gods' manes, 
 are, on account of the subjects with which they are 
 ornamented, highly interesting- to the scholar and to 
 the antiquary; for they are of vast importance in the 
 study of the mythology and of the manners and customs 
 of the ancients ; and they afford considerable informa- 
 tion in tracing the history of the arts. Though the 
 sculpture is not of the highest quality, yet it has, for the 
 most part, merit enough to attract and fix the attention 
 of the artist and the virtuoso. 
 
 Sometimes their external surface is adorned with a 
 simple fluting in perpendicular or oblique or spiral 
 lines ; sometimes they bear the representation of the 
 front of a temple, with its columns surmounted by a 
 pediment ; and sometimes again they are divided into 
 several arcades, in each of which is one or more figures.* 
 It is seldom that all the four sides of the sarcophagus 
 are sculptured ; frequently no more than one of the 
 sides and the two ends, but most generally only one of 
 the sides, which was called the front. The subjects 
 of the bas-reliefs are in some instances the pure works 
 of the imagination, representing wreaths of flowers and 
 arabesque ornaments.! In others they are adorned 
 with historical subjects which in no degree correspond 
 with the solemn purposes to which the sarcophagus is 
 devoted, such as Achilles' discovery of Ulysses amongst 
 
 Vide PJates 131, 141. f Vide Plate 128.
 
 60 SEPULCHRES. 
 
 the daughters of Lycomedes ; Venus surprised by Vul- 
 can in the arras of Mars ; Orestes pursued by the Furies ; 
 the battles of the Centaurs and the Lapithse. But for 
 the most part, however, these bas-reliefs have an appro- 
 priate reference to the occasion upon which they are 
 introduced.* Sleep, which bears so close a resemblance 
 to death, is a subject of frequent representation upon 
 the sides of the sarcophagus. Sometimes the sculptured 
 figures were moral allegories, as the Seasons, which 
 exhibited the various periods of human life ; or the 
 labours of Hercules, which represented the triumph of 
 virtue over the passions.t At other times the sculptor 
 selected for his design some particular circumstance in 
 the history of the life of the deceased ; his profession, 
 his offices, his connexions, or his pursuits. A daughter 
 snatched from an affectionate parent by an untimely 
 death was described by Proserpine run away with by 
 Pluto ; or Ceres, with flambeaux in her hands, in a car 
 drawn by winged dragons, seeking her lost child : the 
 figures of the Musest adorned the tomb of the man of 
 literature ; the representation of a battle, or of some 
 hero, that of the warrior ; and the pursuits of Diana, 
 or the adventures of Actaeon,|l that of the man devoted 
 to the pleasures of the chase. 
 
 * Vide Plate 134. f Museo Pio Clementine, torn. v. 88- 
 
 J Vide Plates 131, 135. Vide Plates 133, 138. 
 
 || Vide Plate 142.
 
 SEPULCHRES. 61 
 
 The front of the sarcophagus was oftentimes sur- 
 mounted by a frieze, which was adorned with a sculp- 
 cured festoon, a border of flowers, or very minute 
 figures.* 
 
 * Vide Plates 129, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139, 140, 142. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 n.xnn.
 
 R. CLAY. PRINTER, BREAD-STREET HILL.
 
 //.A 
 
 front </ irrr-f /Mr/it I//.--I-. in thf /'< MW.twi-v/ nt\7.P~.4Tiderdon
 
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 PiMitlifd In- ff.Jt,>ti-.t, I>ct.j.i8n .
 
 fl.3. 
 
 The Cover 
 
 of the Vase. 
 
 From a Vase in the possession of Dodwdl Esq ^ of Rome. 
 
 tublijJifd In S. ifo.re. .- , OcC.l .iffu .
 
 7 
 
 
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 a Ifase in? t/ie Sritish
 
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 'fltiaJit, 3 Feet 1 JiifhM. 
 
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 tublishfd1yBMosts.Oct.uBn.
 
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 Pl.72. 
 
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 fl.73. 
 
 ^d Tripod in tfie Jfiisee ffiifw/c' 
 
 l"iili/i.t>i,-ii fy a..irt:;;.i\-f.i. if u.

 
 PL. 74. 
 
 
 
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 PL. 15. 
 
 A Tripod /7'oni f/ie Museum H'or.fle 
 
 fuhlifhnl In- ffJLw. tk-t.i
 
 PI. 76. 
 
 An antique Tripod ircin Piranc^i . 
 
 2'ublUfu.l i
 
 PL . 77. 
 
 ipod in the Miufee Napoleon .
 
 77. 70. 
 
 ^j Lump from Sartp&S ^1/ttic/te Lucerne.
 
 1.19. 
 
 . / Linn// /'rt>/ii Bartolu */////>/// /.tic<-rin'. 
 
 I'll .11, v-<V. lift
 
 s 
 
 I I 
 
 j 
 
 ^ ^-
 
 Fi.81. 
 
 A Lamp rivm fSartolis An tit-he Lucerne -
 
 Antique Lamp from the 
 
 of DC la Chausse. 
 
 'f 
 
 DiHithed by li.Moscji.Oct.Lj.Sii.
 
 Pi. 83: 
 
 in tlie British 
 
 fuhlifhrd bv ffJtttsrs. (>tt. 1.2811.
 
 Bronze Candelabra, found in Hercidanetim 
 
 fnbUfhal *x SJtcvff.
 
 Pl.85. 
 
 t'inii/cliil>rti /rain (}ir<irc[>/>i A'v. 
 
 , ,.l
 
 fi.86. 
 
 Candelabra in the Musff Napoleon . 
 
 Published bv H.MojtJ .Oct.LiSu .
 
 the pofSGffi& 
 
 hMMr.t h II. M,..,,-f, (
 
 n.88.
 
 at R.c7fic\
 
 fl.90. 
 
 A Candelabrum from Piran&fi. 
 
 Plib&Tial Try H-Moses. Oet.i' f iSl2.
 
 A Grand antiqut: Candelabrum from Piranesi . 
 
 Put lished fy B.Mo.'c.t .Pa-.i.i fzi .
 
 frcin fir 
 
 Published *> j?..l/.vcv ^et.i ifn.
 
 fl. 
 
 Candelabrum from Firanesi.
 
 Pl.94. 
 
 . In . tntii/ju' '/// ;,w /rom
 
 A Grand antique Ttizza & Pedestal from fifiine.fi. 
 
 Fublijhtd fy ffJfota .Ccr.i.ifn.
 
 YY..W, 
 
 I n n n n i"n n n N n in r\ n n^n n.n n,n n 1 
 
 D ,M - 
 
 OV1NTIAE- SATVRNTNAE 
 
 SSs 
 
 M 
 
 Sepulchral ilppiuf from Pu 
 
 Published H-N.JIi>Kt,Oct.
 
 > FELT C I / 
 
 CEMETRIAWO 
 
 3MARMO-RAKTO 
 
 ONISIMVS-EIVS 
 
 A Sepulchral Gppus, from Piranesi. 
 
 Published br Klines.
 
 1'l.im. 
 
 'ppu.t ri'oin PirancJii .
 
 ft. 90. 
 
 DllS MANIBVS 
 \ SACRVM ' 
 HERBASIAE 
 CLYME.NES ' 
 
 SEX HERBASWS 
 NAVTI LLVS S1BIET 
 
 
 I" TN.-FR-P -XVIII- IN AGR- P -XVII -. I 
 11 ' ' - ' ' 
 
 ^/ Cippug from thr dntiifiiitatef xacrff et-cii-ilee nnnantmiin r.cplictrtir ^ 
 
 fuJilithcd bvHJfotet, Oct.i.iSn.
 
 PI. WO. 
 
 |! M 1\ DIS MANJB. 
 OCTAVIAE.P.P CATVLLIAE j'll 1 ': 
 ADI DIVI AVG.l 
 VXORI. 
 
 jl Sepulchral <dltnr. from the,Antiquitates sacrar et ch-iles Rnmanorum
 
 J'l.K'l. 
 
 
 M 
 
 *4 (ippiuf rivni the Bonjhese Collection .
 
 P1.1O2. 
 
 MANIBVS v 
 EMPTlDlVAEAVG-L 
 
 ^fi ' SepulcJiraL Gppus from the Musee Ifapolean. 
 
 Published bv H.Xafff. Oct-i
 
 
 V, 
 
 \*J ,' > 
 
 .. ; ' > ;^ ; ' '!; ;', t,*~~**,\
 
 PI. 104. 
 
 Av. -, "zCr > ^rn> ~*v -. ;> ^__ .. \v 
 
 
 
 &*^&iejaex 
 
 wasKrSie^p^ 
 
 
 The 
 
 1 I I '/'//it nn Hamilton .
 
 x.

 
 * 

 
 Section of the Maiufoleuniaf Hadrian m>in tiartoli . 
 
 thni In- JMfi-scs. flrt .i.L/tii.
 
 . 

 
 Section of't/ie Tomb <>/'(ii///j /!:f/iu,f. 
 
 Published bv JfJ6-sn>; /></. i.rfn.
 
 **-- 
 
 ^.:.^ .
 

 
 Section of the Tomb of Cecil it i Jfff <'//,/ . 
 
 flibKthol AI-//J/.V.V />,/. 1.1,1,,.

 
 
 J 
 
 *S
 

 
 ^
 
 PLUS. 
 
 The Tomb ofP.Vibius
 
 '.l.i.iliii
 
 PL.H6. 
 
 I'trir <>/'<i '/'<>
 
 
 ^ ! ^fet&n {3i^l^?f M 1 ;/- ^. 
 
 ^.vdrr^-r u^^.U-^-H--i-' rrC^JxtfJ 
 
 St'r/it'ii o/'t/ic ^d/iie Tomb sheiruu/ the Interior.
 
 n.118. 
 
 Interior of a Sepulchral Chamber near San Pito. 
 
 cJ hv BMva,0.l.ttu.
 
 PL. no. 
 
 
 From fi Sepulchral C/HI//I/HT /// t/ie I i

 
 FL.12O. 
 
 a Sepidc/wal Chamba* ui t/ic 111/ a (<>/\?ina.
 
 Jnri,[it<- ('iritTiiry Vrn t n Court e Howard.
 
 ~d Cinerary f r rn, from Pirur/iv/ .
 
 PL123. 
 
 .1 i'///r/-/irv I'm, fri'/n Bartoltf' ^fnticki (V'
 
 PL. I'M. 
 
 I -f- V H 
 
 ./// fJtrf/.-.-rf/// (hit-mrr /'r/i.trc/n l><irt<ili.< .l:itii-/u' 
 
 fliHMttl In- HJ/iwv. I
 
 Fl.125. 
 
 An Etruscan (i/iertuy Urn, from Barfolij .Jntir/ii Sepolcri . 
 
 I'ublifhai fy J/JfoM, t l,t.
 
 ri.ua. 
 
 . In Etrtijttin Cmerurv I'm , from Bartolij Sfpulcrorum Monunie/ita. 
 
 Published hv UJLifrf. (>rt.i.i8n.

 
 ^
 
 I
 
 ri.iM. 
 
 An antique Sun Dial /horn Carlo Antonini , 
 
 fy BJden
 
 7Y..//.5. 
 
 A 'domestic Fminfain . from Rocc/ieypetinis Morwme/tfi J?iticM.
 
 ei.146. 
 
 An antique Putcal from PiPccheciciiani'j MonumentiAntichi .
 
 ft. 147. 
 
 A Marble Chair of the G\'mnajiarch from Smarts Athens -

 
 ri.ua. 
 
 E rrAEA NBAS I A H Eg EMON AOPv EON EATEAYTI1M 
 ?- N EM ETA I 
 
 TPITHRPOSAA-PEl 
 
 ONTFNOMEKH 
 
 NAPBHAO1? 
 
 AIAKIAflNrENEHSMHTPOSOAYMniAAO? 
 
 /''//>/>! Jlillin .(ralfrie Mythologique . 
 
 l ln-ll.JI,<frj. I' .

 
 Fl; 1.5(1
 
 V3L. c ' , < <^.J 
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 
 LD-URL 
 05 1996 
 
 Ql APR 
 
 REC'OYfiL FEB.2.5W 
 
 
 
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