sepulchres of Etruria; arrow-heads and bronze swords
of the Roman time; standards with the famous Roman
eagles; helmets, including a famous one dedicated to
Jupiter Olympius, by Hiero I. on the occasion of gaining
a victory over the Tuscans at Cumae, upwards of four
centuries before our era; and one found at Olympia,
dedicated by the Argives; bronze plates, and military
belts, from Vulci. The next six cases (46-51)
are filled with various Grecian and Roman antiquities,
of which the visitor should particularly notice amid
bronze amphorae, tripods, glass beads, weights in the
shape of busts, sacrificial knives, and bronze hatchet
heads, three cistae or boxes, with classical groups
in relief upon them, the subject of one being Hercules
grasping serpents. These cistae were the toilette
boxes of the ancients. Here too the visitor should
remark the hearth (a tripod) with charcoal still upon
it, with fire-irons and cooking utensils; and a variety
of tripods variously ornamented with sphinxes, Boreas
carrying away Orithyia; and leaden vases from Delos,
holding the ashes of the dead. An interesting
collection of candelabra, from the Etruscan sepulchres,
is arranged in the next cases (52, 53). These
candelabra were highly esteemed throughout ancient
Greece. They are decorated chiefly with mythological
subjects, and have, attached to them, vessels for
dipping into larger vessels. Those in the next
case (54) are of the Roman period. Having glanced
at the censers and bronze lamps in the next cases
(56-57) the visitor may pass on to the case numbered
58-64, in which is a large collection of bronze vessels,
including unguent vases, which are the most highly
decorated, braziers, cauldrons, and jugs. The
two next cases contain a great number of bronze figures
of various heathen deities, representations of mythological
events. Here are, a winged Victory holding an
egg; figures of Juno Sospita; figures for mirrors;
Apollos; a giant hurling a rock; one of the Gorgons;
figures of Mars, in the old grotesque style; a reclining
Dionysus, drinking; satyrs; Aphrodite; Aurora bearing
off Tithonus or Cephalus; Hercules; Ariadne playing
on the lyre; Hercules killing the Maenalian stag;
Minerva; and other figures, all drawn from Grecian
mythology. These cases present, at a glance,
more than any other in the collection, the various
excellences of ancient bronzes. The ancient mirrors
are arranged in the next two cases (68, 69)—one
polished to show their old effect; and in the 70th
case are Etruscan and Roman fibulae or clasps in general
use in the olden time, in lieu of buttons or hooks.
The drainings of the lake of Monte Falterona brought
to light the most attractive objects of the next three
cases (71-73), including the fine Etruscan statue of
Mars, the large statue of a youth; and here also are
a group of Aurora bearing off Memnon; and a satyr
and a bacchante for the top of a candelabrum.
Finely ornamented mirrors, with figures chased, bas-relief,
representing, among other subjects, Minerva before