the separation of the stocks, or what progress it
thereafter made while Italy remained left to its own
resources; it is uncertain how far the Italian fullers,
dyers, tanners, and potters received their impulse
from Greece or Phoenicia or had their own independent
development But certainly the trade of the goldsmiths,
which existed in Rome from time immemorial, can only
have arisen after transmarine commerce had begun and
ornaments of gold had to some extent found sale among
the inhabitants of the peninsula. We find, accordingly,
in the oldest sepulchral chambers of Caere and Vulci
in Etruria and of Praeneste in Latium, plates of gold
with winged lions stamped upon them, and similar ornaments
of Babylonian manufacture. It may be a question
in reference to the particular object found, whether
it has been introduced from abroad or is a native
imitation; but on the whole it admits of no doubt
that all the west coast of Italy in early times imported
metallic wares from the East. It will be shown
still more clearly in the sequel, when we come to
speak of the exercise of art, that architecture and
modelling in clay and metal received a powerful stimulus
in very early times through Greek influence, or, in
other words, that the oldest tools and the oldest models
came from Greece. In the sepulchral chambers
just mentioned, besides the gold ornaments, there
were deposited vessels of bluish enamel or greenish
clay, which, judging from the materials and style as
well as from the hieroglyphics impressed upon them,
were of Egyptian origin;(18) perfume-vases of Oriental
alabaster, several of them in the form of Isis; ostrich-eggs
with painted or carved sphinxes and griffins; beads
of glass and amber. These last may have come
by the land-route from the north; but the other objects
prove the import of perfumes and articles of ornament
of all sorts from the East. Thence came linen
and purple, ivory and frankincense, as is proved by
the early use of linen fillets, of the purple dress
and ivory sceptre for the king, and of frankincense
in sacrifice, as well as by the very ancient borrowed
names for them (—linon—, -linum-;
—porphura—, -purpura-; —skeiptron—,
—skipon—, -scipio-; perhaps
also —elephas—, -ebur-; —thuos—,
-thus-). Of similar significance is the derivation
of a number of words relating to articles used in
eating and drinking, particularly the names of oil,(19)
of jugs (—amphoreus—, -amp(h)ora-,
-ampulla-, —krateir—, -cratera-),
of feasting (—komazo—, -comissari-),
of a dainty dish (—opsonion—,
-opsonium-) of dough (—maza—,
-massa-), and various names of cakes (—glukons—,
-lucuns-; —plakons—, -placenta-;
—turons—, -turunda-); while conversely
the Latin names for dishes (-patina-, —patanei—)
and for lard (-arvina-, —arbinei—)
have found admission into Sicilian Greek. The
later custom of placing in the tomb beside the dead
Attic, Corcyrean, and Campanian vases proves, what
these testimonies from language likewise show, the